The Sun Speaks " I had Aotearoa at my fingertips "
The Golden Apple "You never really learn do you "
Whole cast
Defeating the monster "What goes around comes around "
In the beginning
Exploring Statuses
Pandora's Box The lift Stops
The Price you pay "You can only give the gift"
Seasons "Why has no one cone for me"
MORE PICS AND VIDEO TO FOLLOW
Te toi whakairo, ka ihiihi, ka wehiwehi, ka
Aweawe to ao katoa. Artistic excellence makes the world sit up in wonder
DEPARTMENT VISION
To establish Lincoln High School as a leading Drama environment that recognizes and offers a holistic programme which caters for different learning styles and needs, and which strives to overcome barriers to learning. Individual needs should be recognized and addressed, and links with the community fostered and strengthened. Quality theatrical experiences should be provided for all students, so that each student feels validated, successful and able to achieve to the best of their ability.
Lincoln High School is a state secondary school for Year 9 to Year 13 students. It is a modern, co-educational high school located in the township of Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch and near Lincoln University. The school sets very high standards for its 1400 students and offers a wide range of courses and activities. We value learning with others, individual learning and life long learning.
We are proposing to devise a piece of theatre which directly meets the needs of our diverse students at Lincoln High School and challenges all students, from those with special learning needs to those talented and gifted students to aim high , in keeping with our school values and the spirit of the Curriculum document. The project will also aim to address cultural diversity and be in keeping with New Zealand’s multicultural context.
The Project:
- The performance will be structured through a range of narrative devices, including use of Māori mythology and fables from many Lands.
- Students will research and explore (while using process Drama and a range of elements and conventions) historical/ social groups whose voices and stories weave a kete full of riches.
- The purpose behind this project is to give students an opportunity to establish their sense of place and their contribution to New Zealand as well as acknowledging the experience of past generations
Students will interpret, record and challenges our understanding of what is means to be a New Zealander, within a historical context through the lens of fable/ mythology/ metaphor.
Students will select and research stories from a selected pool of ‘rich’ and relevant stories and create a devised performance piece using extended metaphors, visual images, supported by a range of technologies (projection, video, sound and lighting, masks, basic costuming).
Students will be encouraged to be independent learners in a mutually respectful environment, where students are given the tools to shape and refine a range of narratives, which will be linked together through technologies and a range of narrative structures.
We feel really fortunate to be selected as part of the Artists in Schools Programme and to have the opportunity to work with Lin Clark. Lin has an extensive CV and been a very active Director, lecturer and Curriculum developer of NCEA standards. We will be aiming to keep a digital log of activities as we journey together in the devising process. Students have been encouraged to write parts of their journal entries into the blog, to give other schools an idea of what we have been doing. We are very excited to be able to showcase our work on the 23rd September in the school hall.
Sandra McLean - HOD Drama- Year 12
Amy Edwards- Drama teacher- Year 13 Artist in Residence comments made by the students about the project: ‘Having Lin with us has been a totally awesome experience. I learnt so much while having heaps of fun, and I would love to have it all over again!’ Tiffany Pascoe Year 12 Drama ‘We liked having Lin to work with because she gave us so many ideas and she was happy. This was a great experience for us because the Year 12’s and 13’s students got to work together to put on this great show. She put into perspective all the possibilities there are and to change a plain story into a magnificent performance. Very valuable experience and to hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ makes it even more special and a better experience.’ AliseThomson, Emma Waipouri and Nicola Scobie Year 12 & 13 Drama ‘It is going to be truly difficult not seeing Lin everyday! I got very used to seeing her shining face – it was definitely something I looked forward to everyday!’ Heather Alexander Year 13 Drama ‘When you’re devising the key is to be able to open up your mind and let your wildest thoughts roam and come alive on stage. This devising experience has allowed that more than any other. The artist brings in inspiration, advice and bold ideas to extend your piece further. The unique set we had gave you the opportunity to really make the performance a larger than life experience.’ ‘Lin our artist has been very inspirational to us all. This Term we have all learnt and grown in our confidence and abilities, but we have also learnt what it’s like to be a true theatre performer. She embraces our talents and skills, and guided us to create an amazing show. We would love to have her back next year!’ Maddie Moorhouse Year 12 Drama ‘This assessment was way different to any others that we have done in the past. The extensive set, props and costumes allows us to put on a complete, extensive show beyond our hopes and dreams.’ Laura Hayward, Abby Leggett and Nicole Allchurch Year 13 Drama ‘It was really beneficial to have Lin as our artist in residence. She was an awesome addition to our group of teachers. Can we keep her?’ Jordon Jones Year 12 Drama “The Chance of a Lifetime” ‘I never would have been able to pull off a one man show without Lin. Her experience guided me.’ Andy McCarthy Year 13 Drama ‘Having an artist in residence was an awesome experience. It was also a great opportunity to have a different opinion and ideas. I think it really helped and the things we could do with the funding were great. It was beneficial to our devising and all the help and feedback we received was fantastic! Ps. Lin is awesome. We love you.’ Chloe, Si and Kyra Year 13 Drama ‘Working with our artist in residence has been an experience we won’t forget. Lin brought an extra stretch of creative mind to our assessment and challenged our ambitions.’ Jen and Heather Year 13 Drama “Lin, you’re a dead-set ripper mate. What a hoot.” Kate, Lucy, Jed Year 12 Drama ‘This experience made us open our eyes to the possibilities drama can bring into our lives. It gave us confidence, skills and friendship with people that if we hadn’t had this experience we would never have met.’ Stephanie Duncan and Stacey Abernethy Year 12 Drama STUDENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROJECT: This year the Lincoln High School Drama Department has been very lucky to receive an artist in residence. This is a program set up to pair a limited number of schools each with a theatre professional. Students get to work with this experienced artist in small groups of 2-4 actors and it’s an absolutely fantastic experience. This is the first year Lincoln High School has been involved with the program and most likely it will not be the last! Much to our luck we were paired with a truly remarkable woman, a woman who has worked within the industry for many years and is a well-known director at the Repertory Theatre in Christchurch.
Lin Clark is an experienced theatre practitioner and really knows her onions! She has provided invaluable input and is a source of support and motivation for us senior drama students. There can be times when we’re dithering around with an idea, not making a step in any direction. Then we see the staunch figure of Lin striding towards us and the situation turns into something like this: “Oh-no, Lin’s coming! Quick, should we do it, yes? No? Yes! You stand there, I’ll stand here…now, Act!” So by the time Lin’s arrived at our area, not only have we made a decision but we’re actually on our feet acting it! But it’s not as if we fear Lin, oh no, I think everyone can agree that Lin has never been anything other than helpful and kind to us.
It has been a long 10 weeks, but at the same time the clock has been racing towards performance date at a very scary pace! All through the bewildering, distressing and scary time that is devised drama, Lin has been a rock, letting our panic just wash over her, keeping her head as one-by-one we all lose ours.
Lin is a very special lady and we have all grown to respect her a lot. Her ideas have helped us so much and her support has been extremely motivating. I don’t think we all understood at first how much this project meant to her. It was hers as much as it was ours and our performances on the night reflect upon her talents too. Lin has shown an admirable attitude towards the project and her commitment has been extraordinary with her turning up every day of every week for 10 weeks (that’s more than some of the students!) as well as some after school and weekend rehearsals. It has been a great learning experience working with Lin and all of the students of the year 12 and 13 drama classes are so grateful for all of her hard work. The fabulous performance evening Te Kete Nui wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without her excellent guidance and dedication.
So big thanks from the year 12 & 13 drama classes to the extraordinary Lin Clark!
Heather Alexander
EXEMPLAR OF PORTFOLIO WORK COVERING 8 WEEK PROCESS
Christy Ballantyne Year 12
22nd July How the Koala lost his tail
1Q) What universal themes does this myth touch on?
A) Curiosity for truth, the need to know everything and knowledge of why everything is why it is.
2Q) Why should it stay in our collection?
A) Because it wasn’t until 1810 when Europeans came to Australia and saw the Koala that they thought it was a Monkey and couldn’t understand why it didn’t have a long tail. So they came up with these theories which have stuck around today. Important to stay in the collection because we are all a bit European, and it shows humans need to have a theory for everything…
3) Brief notes on other myths we read about.
Notes: Earths creation-Maori NZ imp. To US , Creation of music, coming to terms with death, war and how coming to a compromise is better, the creation of animals-dingoes from mice and fighting a drought-cloud eater.
23rd July
1) How many roles do we need and how do we organize them?
-5 parts, but we can use a voice over or one person can play two parts (one part being voice over)
2) What strengths as performers/designers would we bring to the production?
-Past knowledge of Greek mythology (Classics + studies of myths), wide range of experience of different styles within the groups of performance (Musical, Greek, Shakespeare etc), Singers, Costume designers that would give each character an individuality and reflect the Godliness nature of the individual.
3) What special talents/creative ideas can we bring to the myth?
Singing, costumes, technical-voice overs? for Zeus as the 5th character because he is on stage less but he is also the most important god, so him being portrayed by a voice over gives him an extra supernatural-ness that the other gods don’t have?
24th July
Bare bones of my life in 10 words:
Born, Sockburn, Hannah, Springston, Gemma, NEW, LHS, Joseph, Grease, Prebbleton.
Bare bones of our myth-
Wedding of Peleus + Thetis-gods invited except Eris. She arrived, was turned away. Angrily cast golden apple amongst goddesses "To the Fairest." 3 goddesses claimed apple--Aphrodite, Hera + Athena. Zeus mediated. Paris to decide the issue. Goddesses offered gifts for favor. Chose Aphrodite, her promise-Helene. Start of Trojan War
(50 WORDS EXACTLY :D)
Research: Universal concerns are raised on the myth: Vanity, competition, cheating, jealousy, judgment, Marriage. What connection to today’s world? Vanity very much a big part of today’s world, we all want to look our best, want the best (or at least the media/celebrity world raise the stakes to that level-plastic surgery, cosmetics and fashion).
Similar or related myths Similar themes: Beauty, THREE daughters (three goddesses), Jealousy, Marriage. VERY SIMILAR TO MODERN DAY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OR CINDERELLA.
Similar or related myths
Story from: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_4.htm Once upon a time there was a king with three daughters. They were all beautiful, but by far the most beautiful was the youngest, Psyche. She was so beautiful that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was very jealous, and asked her son Cupid (the boy with the arrows) to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster. When he saw how beautiful she was, Cupid dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her.
Despite her great beauty no-one wanted to marry Psyche. Her parents consulted an oracle, and were told that she was destined to marry a monster, and they were to take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. The west wind took her and wafted her away to a palace, where she was waited on by invisible servants. When night came her new husband visited her, and told her that he would always visit her by night and she must never try to see him.
Although her invisible husband was kind and gentle with her, and the invisible servants attended to her every desire, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit her. When they saw how she lived they became very jealous and talked Psyche into peeking at her husband, saying that he was a monster who was fattening her up to be eaten and that her only chance of safety was to kill him. Psyche took a lamp and a knife, but when she saw her beautiful husband, Cupid, she was so surprised she dripped some hot wax onto his shoulder, waking him. He took in the situation at a glance and immediately left Psyche and the magnificent palace she had been living in disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Psyche roamed about looking for her husband, and eventually in desperation approached his mother, Venus. Still angry, the goddess set various tasks for Psyche, all of which she passed, with a bit of help from ants and river gods. At last Cupid found out what was going on, and he persuaded Jupiter to order Venus to stop her persecution of Psyche. Then they were married and lived happily ever after - and it really was ever after since Psyche was made a goddess.
What further ideas does this myth give us? Show the three goddesses together as a unit, but they can’t move into each other’s personal space too much or this will dull down the godliness status that they have (they are all powerful, if they move into each other’s space this will make them seem very human like, will have to show the audience this by using strong gestures and long arms when snatching the apple from each other’s grasp at the beginning-haven’t gotten further onto how we will portray the story yet), but the theme that runs throughout the Greek mythology is that Goddesses appear in threes and this makes them more powerful, so when Paris is trying to make a decision, the three ganging up on him and pressuring him to make a decision (and to make two other powerful enemies at the same time) will build tension and the final decision will come across with more impact when Aphrodite cheats-the shock will hopefully be quite good, because we were going in one direction trying to get him to make a decision, then all of a sudden she decides that she will just use her powers and cheat, and that’s not fair on the other two because Paris can’t make a real judgment then as he is too overcome by her beauty (as Cupid was so overcome by Psyche’s beauty that he pricked himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her-unable from then on unable to stop loving her-although it worked out for Psyche in the end) .
-Introduce each goddess INCLUDING Eris at the beginning0have a stage configuration of a goddess standing back to back in a sort of medium-large circle and as each one is introduced, the rest crouch down OUT of character as the other one stands up and walks around saying like “I’m Athena,the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, and the defense of towns, heroic endeavor, weaving, pottery and other
crafts ” crafts”
, of course each goddess thinks the best of themselves so they talk themselves up, this sets the scene of vanity and introduces who is who for the audience, and a bit of a history/classics lesson for the audience about what each goddess is representative of.
Bits and bobs related to our myth
In the story which follows, ‘The Judgment of Paris’, we see how the gods could play with the lives of men (Trojan war)Judgment of Paris sets up for the story of that.
APHRODITE was the great Olympian goddess of beauty, love, pleasure and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman usually accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her attributes included a dove, apple, scallop shell and mirror. In classical sculpture and fresco she was often depicted nude. Aphrodite is the goddess of sexual love, also associated with physical beauty in all its forms. (Show her beauty and grace through movement and dance? Softly spoken, pretty, soft colours on clothes have symbols of her attributes on clothing)
HERA was the Olympian queen of the gods and the goddess of women and marriage. She was also a goddess of the sky and starry heavens. She was usually depicted as a beautiful woman wearing a crown and holding a royal, lotus-tipped staff. Sometimes she held a royal lion or had a cuckoo or hawk as her familiar. Hera, wife of Zeus, is the goddess of marriage and the home, and as such is always smarting from her husband’s sexual adventures. (Use gold on her dress to symbolise royality and use beads to represent jewels. Talk with a posher accent and walk very smoothly. Get's very frustrated when Zeus doesn't do what she wants)
ATHENE (or Athena) was the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, and the defense of towns, heroic endeavor, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aegis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon. Athene is a virgin goddess of war and wisdom. (Grey, silver and blues for her dress, a strong character, sheild? spear? sword? Possibly have snake pattern in face paint on arm instead of having it on a cloak)
ERIS was the goddess or spirit ( daimona ) of strife, discord, contention and rivalry. She was often represented specifically as the daimon of the strife of war, who haunted the battlefield and delighted in human bloodshed. Because of Eris' disagreeable nature she was the only goddess not to be invited to the wedding of Peleus and
Thetis . Thetis.
When she turned up anyway, she was refused admittance and, in a rage, threw a golden apple amongst the goddesses inscribed "To the fairest." Three goddesses laid claim it, and in their rivalry brought about the events which led to the Trojan War. Eris was closely identified with the war-goddess
Enyo . Enyo.
Indeed Homer uses the names interchangeably. Her Roman name was Discordia. Sister of Ares (the god of War), daughter of Zeus and Hera, the hand of Eris can be seen in every quarrel, feud and disagreement. Her eternal and unforgiving rage was the cause of fear and respect on Mount Olympus, though despised by the Olympians they dared not confront her. She rode into battle with her brother and companion, Ares, but she was more generally known for the less deadly forms of conflict; political strife, personal contention, rivalry and wrangling. (Dark grey and black for her dress/tunic/cloak, cheeky, mischievous)
Paris had the misfortune to be chosen by the gods as a judge at the dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite about who was the most beautiful. (see Helen for this story). He went to Sparta and was welcomed by Menelaus. Paris answered the hospitality with treachery, stealing Menelaus fortunes and taking Helen with him. This led to the Trojan War. Paris was rescued from being killed by Menelaus by Aphrodite, who surrounded him with a cloud and brought him back to Troy. It was also Aphrodite who helped him kill Achilles by blowing his arrow to the hero's mortal heel, but Paris himself was killed with an arrow from Philoctetes. Just before his death, Paris begged his beloved nymph Oenone to heal him, but she refused. After Paris death Oenone committed suicide. (Kiwi farmer, can't make a decision)
-Another version of the story
Aphrodite cheats by revealing her body (anyone who sees her in her true form cannot help but to fall for her) except for her magic girdle. EVEN in this version, the contest is unequal; Paris is overpowered by her beauty and, (contrary to the story’s usual title) is unable to exercise his judgment. We could see this as a metaphor for ‘falling in love’.
In another version, found in Euripedes and Apollodorus, Hera being angry with Paris for choosing Aphrodite, creates a phantom Helen, whom he weds, while the real Helen is spirited away to Egypt by Hermes upon the orders of Zeus. This implies that Paris does not relate to the real woman, but to a phantasm of his own imagination.
-In myths, goddesses often appear in threes (Also the Holy Trinity)-representing aspects of a single deity (dictionary meaning-a god, goddess, or other being regarded as divine, basically meaning that the goddesses-who each represented different things, war, love, beauty-together as one represented the divine God status. Singularly they would not have been as strongly represented of the divine status, but together they are more powerful, so Paris had a hard decision. If he chose one, he’d make powerful enemies of the other two). (When we stand in the freeze frame/triangle-three points of a triangle, it can be linked back to this research, with Hera standing at the top of the triangle as the most powerful. Some issues that the diety causes is that the Goddesses sometimes end up acting the same. We have to concentrate to make sure that our characters are very different).
~The gods were different from the heroes not so much by their strength as by their supernatural power. They demanded worship from heroes and men alike and, in return, were able to perform miracles, offer supernatural protection, or give magical gifts (as in the story of Perseus). (We demand that Paris treat us as Gods, not as common mortals. We do this by treating him like a common mortal)
~The Olympian pantheon of gods was the most well-known, each deity possessing a distinctive character. Twelve of them famously lived on Mount Olympus. (We talk about Mt Olympus in our opening)
~In addition to these twelve Olympian deities were Hades, who ruled the Underground realm with Persephone, his queen, and also the dark goddess Hecate, who lived with them. Hestia, goddess of the Hearth, was replaced by Dionysus in the fifth century BCE. (In the Judgment of Paris we see how Gods play with the lives of men)
~The full extent to which humans are ruled by the gods only becomes clear when we learn that Aphrodite set up the contest , presumably knowing that she held the trump card. She did so in order to punish Tyndareus , husband of Leda, for dishonouring her. Pausanias relates that Tyndareus put fetters on Aphrodite’s statue in her temple, because he felt that her amorous powers should be confined to marriage. The outraged goddess decided to make all three of his daughters unfaithful to their husbands. The most famous daughter was Helen of Troy, although strictly speaking her father was probably Zeus, who seduced Leda in the form of a swan on a night when she also slept with her husband. (Not applicable for our interpretation of our myth, but interesting for background research)
~ The failure to invite Eris, Strife (echoed in the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty), represents a dishonouring comparable with Tyndareus’ treatment of Aphrodite. The implication is that even destructive deities are essential to the psyche and to society, and will make their presence felt if denied . Similarly, strife is a necessary part of marriage. ("We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship and livlihoods", in our version, if Athene was to win the apple, the world would fall to ruin because she couldn't go and help in the war effort because Aphrodite's place essentially has been taken by her. In Hera's dream she has great power, and holds the world in her hand. She can cause earthquakes and banish however wherever she likes, no matter the consequences-banishing Athene to Africa would mean that she couldn't go and help in other places or help other people, as is her nature).
Eris is associated with Ares, god of war, who in turn is amorously connected to Aphrodite.
APPLE ~ The marriage at which the fateful apple is produced is unusual, being between a mortal man and a goddess. (We talk around Paris, as if he isn't really there until I tell Hera to give Paris the apple)
~The apple thrown by Eris is perhaps related to Eve’s apple , representing a fall from unity to disunity (This could be symbolised when we fall to earth-the fall to earth from Mt Olympus symbolising us falling from unity to disunity. On earth we aren't presented as a front as we were on Mt Olympus). The contest itself resembles other mythical contests , especially that between three Celtic heroes, including Cuchulainn, over which of them is the greatest hero. Here the role played by Eris in the Greek myth is paralleled by the mischief-maker Bricriu.
At about this time the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the hero and the sea-goddess, was celebrated on Mount Pelion. All the gods and goddesses were invited, with the noted exception of Eris, the Goddess of Strife, who was hideous and disagreeable. Angered at being left out of the nuptuals she strode into the middle of the wedding feast and threw a golden apple into the assembled company. It landed between the three most powerful goddesses, Hera, Athene and Aphrodite. Picking it up, Zeus found it was inscribed ‘For the Fairest’. Wisely deciding not to judge between the three deities himself, Zeus nominated the beautiful Paris as arbiter, but first he sent Hermes to enquire whether he would be willing to act as judge. Paris agreed and so a time was set for the three goddesses to appear to him on Mount Ida.
When the day came, Paris sat himself on a boulder and waited with beating heart for the arrival of the three great deities. All at once a great light appeared which covered the entire mountain. At first Paris was blinded, but then the goddesses cloaked their light in cloud so that he was able to look at them. First Hera, the great queen, approached him and flaunted her beauty in front of him. Radiant with glory she made him a promise. If he awarded her the apple, she would grant him wealth and power. He would rule over the greatest kingdom on earth. Paris felt the excitement of this and his ambition rose up and yearned for her gift.
After that, grey-eyed Athene approached him, drawing near and bending down, so that he might look into the magical depths of her eyes. She promised him victory in all battles, together with glory and wisdom - the three most precious gifts a man could have. This time Paris felt his mind leap with excitement and with desire for the riches of knowledge and the glory of prowess.
Then it was the turn of Aphrodite. Hanging back a little, she tilted her head so that her hair fell forward, concealing a blush on her face. Then she loosened the girdle of her robe and beneath it, Paris caught sight of her perfectly formed breast, white as alabaster.
‘Paris,’ she said, and her voice seemed to sing inside his head. ‘Give me the apple and in return I will give you the gift of love. You will possess the most beautiful woman in the land, a woman equal to me in perfection of form. With her you will experience the greatest delights of love-making. Choose me, Paris, and she will be yours.’
Then Paris, overpowered by the intoxication of her words and her beauty, found himself handing her the apple without even pausing to reflect on his decision, guided only by the strength of his desire.
So it was that Paris awarded the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite, and Hera and Athene became his implacable enemies. True to her promise, Aphrodite gave him Helen, the most beautiful woman living on the earth at that time - but, in order to enjoy her, he had to snatch her from her powerful husband, Menelaus. So began the terrible ten-years’ war between the Trojans and the Greeks in which many a brave hero lost his life, including Paris himself, and after which the great hero Odysseus wandered the seas for a further ten long years before returning home. (Parts of this could be used in our interpretation) 28th July 28 What was the hardest part/aspect about translating your bare bones into movement?
I think that the hardest thing was that some of the action was actually affected by voice/sound, which alerted a response, and the way that we started doing our action of our barebones with the mime made it difficult as we could not tell if we had been alerted or not (example, when Eris throws the golden apple we all have our backs to her, so we do not know when she has thrown it, but if she was to say something like “To the fairest” or “She who is the most beautiful may lay the claim” this would alert us and also alert the audience to the focus on the apple and also it may make it clearer as to WHY we are fighting over the apple-we all think we are fairest and deserve to have it). Which parts of the story are going to be challenging to act out?
Well, I think that the middle section when Zeus sends us to Paris is going to be a challenge to get our brains around because of the number of people, it may be that Jordon turns around and becomes a booming voice, or the three goddesses suddenly appear down on earth-the transition between god world and earth is going to be difficult because we haven’t really had a chance to think about it and also the sort of stage we are acting on-we can’t just walk off and back on again. Zeus is necessary to the scene as he is the King of Olympus and is usually the peace keeper, so the fact that in this instace that he is stepping back back from making a decision, is quite shocking in a way, and it also creates a link to Earth and Paris. In what way has the quality of your feedback changed from yesterday?
We ran out of time for feedback…but had a few questions just to make sure they had the story straight, which they did What did you learn from feedback given for your specific group? What ideas/questions do you need to think about?
Making the actions obvious and clear making each ‘statement’ about who we are and what we are doing deliberate so that there is no confusion (why we are fighting over the apple, we only managed to get up to the fighting over the apple bit).
29th July
Feedback:
-Are you still going to show her in her ‘true form’?
-The formal beginning (stylized) worked very well, would be good if that slower pace could be carried through
-Hard to tell Jordon’s character at the moment as she changes so often-story heavily reliant on voice/voice over (Zeus) Reflect on Feedback
We have decided to use the technologies and when the goddesses get sent from Mount Olympus to earth, we are going to use a flash of light, and use a different colour light for the two different places to show the difference. The flash of light will represent Zeus’ power as he sends us to Paris and we find ourselves on earth (our slight variation on the story)-Zeus is often depicted with a lightning bolt so the flash of light-a voice will say something along of the lines (possibly) of “The fairest will be chosen by Paris of Troy”.
The three goddesses body language will (possibly-haven’t talked to the others yet) go from vanity (“I’m fairest in the land”), the fight over the apple (want to prove that they are the fairest), to shame when Zeus tells them off, to disgust when they end up on earth, then a fake ‘love’ for Paris because they want to make the best case for themselves as the most beautiful.
We have talked about showing Aphrodite’s ‘true form’ in a few different ways-wearing an undergarment and the ‘magic girdle’ but that seems to be rather random for our piece i.e. the magic girdle seems very ancient and we are trying to play it more contemporary. We have also talked about her using her womanly charms and seducing Paris (therefore using her powers) but we’d have to make it very obvious that this was what she was doing-casting a spell over Paris so that he’d chose her.
SYMBOLS
A golden apple-represents beauty (gold painted), linked to Aphrodite (beauty), a part of the story.
A map of earth (to show Europe and Asia-Hera)-blue and green lights when Hera uses her charm to try and get Paris to chose her. Symbolizes earths green-land and blue-oceans (Europe and Asia are her bribes) Yellow/ gold/orange lights represent the goddesses’ power-at the party
ZAP!-Lightning bolt to represent Zeus, as his character is often seen with one-this is also the change from Mt Olympus to Earth (a flash of light and a sound of a lightning bolt from Zeus)
Sword + shield + spear-Athene=War, strength, power and might.
Type of narration? We don’t have a lot of narration in our piece as we have a solid story/structure. We do have a part at the beginning where the goddesses introduce themselves and give clues as to why things in the story happen (the vanity, the reason why Eris wasn’t invited to the party), and this is a sort of self narration at the beginning. We may have a narration/voiceover at the end to give an account of what happens next (the Trojan war) as well being aware that this may become to anticlimax, but it also may be nice to end in the same way we started. This would make the story a circular narrative as we start with the Goddesses giving accounts of who they are.
The overall style of performance is going to be a mix of mythical and modern. Our myth is Greek, but we don’t want to act it out in traditional Greek style (we don’t have the stage set up and we think that it’d be boring to be honest), so we have decided to make it slightly more contemporary, but also keep the mythical theme running through it with the costuming and the haughty language of the goddesses (this also showing the vanity-a major theme in the myth-“Beauty, pleasure, love, procreation. That’s my entire domain. I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and none can question that.”
We also want to keep our performance slightly stylized, as in our feedback, it was said that this worked for our piece. We haven’t yet come up with many ideas as to how to do this, but once we get moving I’m sure it will happen.
We have talked about a modern application of our myth, depending on the length of our piece and if it would work well, but we don’t know as of yet how it would work. We have got a few different ideas about vanity and boyfriends, and that sort of thing…
Narrative styles that would suit our myth could also be a sort of media type thing, where the goddesses have the spotlight on them and they are delivering an account of the what is happening, what they saw etc. this would work because they like the attention and the spotlight creates this, drawing the focus to them (one person speaking one stage) and the idea/theme of attention seeking, wanting the spotlight is part of the story also relates to today's society.
5th August
Decided not to make the story a circular narrative as we think that:
a) it would make the story even longer than needed
b) we think that we can get a strong story from the myth as we have changed the ending of the myth.
c) there would be no point having an account of what happens next as it is all destruction, and we want to focus on the beauty/vanity. We don't want to make the myth to complicated to tell.
SO our myth is going to by a linear story, and at this stage we have very few entrances and exits which is good for us as it means less stress and less transitions and no blackouts as a last resort.
Working on character: Process conventions
The Judgement of Paris Starring:
Christy: Athene
Stacey: Hera
Steph: Aphrodite
Jordon: Eris
Paris
Zeus to be played by a recorded voice over-to be cast
Role on the wall:
Athene-
Xena type character
Very strong
Independent
Feminine
Wise-shown by a few wise quotes "We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship"
Immortal-played in 20's to bring the cattyness through
I am a very strong and independant goddess/women, yet still very feminine. I am the goddess of wise councel and I feel that I may be smarter than others around me (although Aphrodite may have some beauty, I far am superior because of my other abilities, as well as having the fairest looks). I can be quite forceful when going for what I want, and if something is standing in my way I will do my best and not let it stop me.
The role on the wall helped as it helped our group to create differences and see the differences between each of the goddesses in our myth (so they weren't all being played the same). For example, Aphrodite is going to be played quite flirty and flimsily-what we sort of imagine a 'play boy bunny'- as this shows her aparent beauty, but also shows her cunningness towards the other two and Eris. One the other hand Hera is being played in a motherly, nuturing type fashion as this seemed appropriate as she is the Olympian queen of the gods and the goddess of women and marriage (so fertility). Having that motherly nature is almost overpowering and she takes it to extremes, being overprotective possibly, overly motherly and Athene is very much like Xena (the warrior princess but more stylised).
We worked together with the group to do this exercise and it was really helpful because everyone contributed to everyone's ideas of their character which helped make our characters more 3D and gave each other's more ideas (Jordon got stuck on what to write for Paris, and we were a great help to her). Also being able to see how our characters were becoming so different gave us more ideas too. For example, because of the differences and they all think that they are better than each other, we want them to all get really catty and Paris to realise that it's the beauty on the inside that counts, not on the outside-so maybe he plants the apple so no one gets the apple, or the tree grows and many years later it becomes just another apple tree.
10 August
Today we drafted and worked on our series of monologues. The main idea is to intorduce each goddess and tell the audience who she is, and what her domain is, start getting across the theme of vanity, show differences in personality traits and also tell the audience why Eris wasn't invited the party. So Hera, Aphrodite and Athene each have a two line or so intro where we each state who we are, then say what quatlities we have/what our powers our. The Eris introduces herself and tells the audience about her woes how she isn't invited, why she thinks this is, and that she'll get her revenge (leaving the audience in suspense to see how). After this scene we will go to the party and we will see the three goddesses telling Eris to leave, Eris then throwing the golden apple and the story commencing...Our research that we did earlier on in the process (24th July) was a big help here to see what how each goddess differed and what her domain was. Also when looking at she was inchanrge of it gave us ideas of how she would act and what she would say, for example although Athene is very war orientated-strong, independant, almost manly-she is also the goddess of weaving and other crafts which gives her a feminine touch, so we imagine her to be strong, yet feminine (see role on the wall).
Hera- I am Hera, the Olympian Queen of all and marriage. I am also the goddess of starry heavens and sky. I am ambitious, I’m powerful, and I’m beautiful. I’m Hera. Aphrodite- Beauty, pleasure, love and procreation, that’s my entire domain, I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and no one can question that. Athene- War, wisdom, weaving and other crafts, I am Athene, the virgin goddess of wise counsel and heroic endeavor. Oh, did I mention my immense beauty?
Eris- I am Eris. I am the goddess of strife, and of discord. According to Zeus, that's why I wasn't invited to the wedding of Perseus and Thetis, nobody likes quarreling at a wedding. Ha! More likely Hera made sure I wasn't coming so that I wouldn't ugly up the place. Those 'beautiful' goddesses make me sick! They think they're all that. I'll show them- see if I don't!
The series of monologues is a better convention to use than straight dialogue because it allows us to interact with the audience, but also lets us deliver information in a more direct way.
18th August
Yesterday we got together (it was the first day with me having my voice back after losing it, so was the first day that we could actually get some vocab going, seeing what our characters would say and how they would react to certain circumstances). We came up with the idea that each goddess would go off in her own little thought bubble (Imaginary flashforward) about what would her life be like if she won the golden apple, and what would the world be like (if she cared about the world). Hera makes Aphrodite and Athene give her “daily compliments”, and then sends Athene off to Africa. She then sends Aphrodite off to Asia, and finds herself without any friends (her beauty makes everyone not question her commands, especially with her being Zeus’ wife). Aphrodite then imagines what would happen if she won the apple. She becomes very vain, and everything about her has to be perfect. All the men fall for her and the world soon is going to be unpopulated because of this. Aphrodite then notices a wrinkle on her face and goes up to the audience showing her fear of this ugliness, when actually, there is no wrinkle, she has just become paranoid (Athene and Hera are standing in the back trying to calm her telling her that it doesn’t exist). Athene then goes into her own thoughts about her life if she was awarded the fairest. Hera and Aphrodite come on telling the audience in a panic about the Great War, and Athene wants to go and help the war effort. But they won’t let her because she might break a nail, and ruin her beautiful hands, or get blood stains on her clothes. Athene going into shock about not being able to be the goddess of war is guided to a seat where she is told to weave, but “Oh wait, she can’t she do that, she might prick herself and ruin her hands”, then is told to read a book, but “No, she can’t do that either, you might get a paper cut”. Then Athene is then told not to talk in case she hurts her beautiful voice, she finds herself not able to do anything except to stare into space. All three goddesses come to the conclusion that they and the world would be better off without one of them winning the golden apple, and become friends again, realizing that beauty is not skin deep, but also on the inside (that each goddess has qualities for helping people i.e. Athene with her wisdom and war efforts). On the lead up to these thoughts and possibly our highest point of tension, we had a pressure circle, trying to pressure Paris into making a decision on which Goddess was the fairest. I spoke up and said that I thought that just the pressure circle was too obvious that it was going to happen, and also it possibly (I’m not sure as I haven’t seen our performance from the audience’s point of view) makes the goddesses look too young and catty. I first suggested that we stand apart from Paris and throw pressuring remarks at him, but we decided that we needed some movement to increase the tension. So we are going to start off by talking to the audience telling them that Paris should pick us. We then go into a pressure circle. We continued to work on these two parts today and make them more fluid and flow between the other parts of our narrative.
Our main ideas that we want to convey to our audience are the themes of vanity, and how beauty is not only skin deep, beauty is on the inside too. We are really going to push this at the end when we are going to talk about (in character) how beauty is on the inside too (Aphrodite), how beauty isn’t worth costing friendship (Hera), or your outlook on life/what you usually enjoy (Athene). We aren’t exactly sure on what we are going to say yet, and we are going to have to be very careful that what we say doesn’t become cliché or cheesy (what we tried to improve today didn’t work, so we will have to sit down and work out some lines). This last part, the end is our weakest part because we haven’t spent a lot of time working on it as of yet.
Conventions that we are going to use to tell our story are: pressure circle (increase tension to put pressure on Paris to choose between the three goddesses), voices in the head/conscience type thing (emotional pressure on Hera when she realizes that she doesn’t have any friends anymore and that she doesn’t want the apple), monologues (to get across messages, to portray characters and give information for example at the beginning when Eris isn’t to the party), tableaux (draw focus to certain parts of the stage, and give the audience a start off picture for a scene or an ending picture for a scene), spoken thoughts (to tell the audience what the character is thinking) and voiceover (for Zeus’ character).
We are really exploring our roles and characters because our characters could become very similar if we aren’t careful, they could also become boring because they could end up being the same as our everyday selves. Also the focus in the scene because of the high statuses of the goddesses, and the scale of the production we need to make the focus balanced across the stage. So we have been playing with tableaux’s, and where we are standing on the stage in relation to one another.
27th August-Reflection
Our goals today for slot were:
1) To finish devising the ending of our piece (as well as we could without Hera)
2) Start working with the apple (Props)
3) To think about Costume, Hair and Makeup
4) Get feedback on our performance
People seemed to respond well to my introduction, even though I was pretty much improvising it. Part of the feedback was that we needed to talk more in our introductions about ourselves, but I'm not sure that making our introductions longer will be of benifit because I think it might justdraw out the process of introducing the Goddesses-but we shall see if there is more to add into the introductions to make them longer. I did find that a lot of explaining was being done, and I just wanted to get in and show what we had done (it was hard to show everyone how much we had done because of Hera not being there, but I think that we did a good job of communicating of what we had got done so far.
Something that didn't go too well was trying to work our ending. This was because we were working with the wrong moral of "Beauty being on the inside". The more obvious moral is something like how if you always reach for something that you don't have then you will never be happy-the idea of grass being greener on the other side and showing the audience that this isn't true through the Goddesses dreams of what might happen if they get the apple, and then at the end when they come to the conclusion that they don't the apple (the apple represents the respect of being the fairest/most beautiful) and that they are content being who they are. But then the end will show them all reaching for another thing (like the apple, which will represnt respect for something, a trophey for bravery or for being the wisest...) which shows how they (Hera, Aphrodite, Athene) haven't changed since the beginning of the piece where they were fighting over the apple.
Since the beginning of the process our piece has gone from the moral of beauty is on the inside to the grass is always greener on the other side. We have also changed and added conventions and the way we tell convey messages in our story.
15th September
Since we changed the original story to include a moral, and then changed our moral/message from beauty on the inside to never learning/always wanting something more, I think that our message is coming across clearer and with more ease. We are using alot more audience interaction-telling them that they beautiful and maybe that they can have the apple, because we don't want to have it, and then Eris comes in and is quite annoyed that her plan hasn't gone to plan (she was trying to set us against each other). Now that we (Hera, Aphrodite and I-Athene (finally decided to stick with Athene instead of Athena)) are friends again, Eris tries to set us against each other again, by offering us a necklace, and also at the same time prooving that we will never learn that a trinket or a trophey isn't worth a friendship, and that always reaching for that thing that always that little bit better than the last thing (selfishness, vanity) isn't a good trait in your personality and will only lead to pain (we show this when we have our spoken thoughts and we wonder what would happen if we were to win the Golden Apple. Hera looses her friends, Aphrodite thinks that she gets wrinkles and I'm not allowed to go and help in the war, weave, read or talk). Rather than going back to our original places after each thought sequence (which interupted the flow of the piece) the next thought sequence starts at the end of the previous one straight away which makes the peice flow with more ease. At times our piece is a bit awkward, but I think that this is because we need to practice more with the props and technologies (Zeus' voice over+lights) which just means doing more practices. Practice makes perfect! The first half of the piece, I think, is really good. We use a couple of freeze frames and small monologues which are quite effective in setting up the scene and the status of the Goddesses (Eris has the most monologues, and she tells the audience that there is a party going on where we are in a tableaux on the steps).
Our characters have become more distinct as we have practiced over the last few weeks. Hera has become more posh and Queenly, Aphrodite is more seductive but "blonde" and Athene, my character is the least dainty of the godesses and is more tomboy/manly. I show this by keeping my voice lower and walking with a bit of a swagger, compared to the other two who are very upright and uptight. Our characters are believable because our physical traits and our voices/what we say reflect/help symbolise who we are/what we represent i.e. Athene, the Goddess of War, war is more of a mens job, it's messy and dirty. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty unlike the other two, and my lower voice, my swagger, and how I interact with Paris (slapping him on the shoulders) all show this.
In today's society, with media and products for everything (including wrinkles-Aphrodites biggest hate), and there always being something new coming onto the market, I think that people will relate to our piece. Our message can really be taken two ways-the way I just mentioned about there always be something better and new than the thing before or that friends sometimes forget priorties, and when they learn (through one path or another) that they have got their priorties wrong, they are still attracted to the next big thing, and forget what they just learned (this is probably more relatable to high school students where the maturity level isn't quite high enough to understand that friendship is the most important thing). The golden apple (and the necklace) is sympolic of beauty, and also symbolic of that thing that people always reach/aim for. The tension that is created between the four Godesses because of the vanity over power and beauty tears the 'friendship' apart that had been formed between Hera, Aphrodite and Athene. This vanity is very aparent in today's society, and we don't always see it as a bad thing, but when mixed with power, or when the vanity gets to a point that the person is constantly thinking about theirself, then this is when it becomes bad and you may loose friends, become anxious in every aspect of your life, and or loose your livelihood (these are all extremes). We don't resolve our story, the Goddesses never learn their mistakes, finishing with Eris holding a necklace just up out of their reach (the godesses in a freeze frame all reaching for the necklace) "Ha! You never learn do you?". We decided to leave the audience like this because it creates thoughts that maybe if they hadn't for once been so selfcentered, then they might be friends, they don't really NEED the necklace.
The most significant moments in our scene are:
1. When we realise that none of us want the apple-because this shows (for one split second) that we do actually like each other and we aren't completely self centered
2. The last moment when Eris says "You'll never learn will you?"-because it leaves the audience thinking about our moral/message
16th September
Changes we are going to make to our performance to improve it after reflecting on feedback as a group are:
1. Add more interaction/dialogue between the goddesses and less narration/spoken thoughts to show how they feel about things rather than telling the audience about how they feel (especially when Paris comes in, before we give him the apple)
2. Change our transitions between the thoughts and the real world, so that it is clear on who we are and when (if we are a figment of someones imagination or-when the transition happens between thoughts-when we are our real selves)
3. Continue to make our voices and characters more distinct also slow down when speaking so that people can hear what we are saying
4. Find other ways to create tension in the scene other than by shouting at each other
5. Stand further apart from each other and not stand so close when doing the pressure cirlce around Paris, as aparently this detracts from our Godliness, you can't hear what we are saying because we are so close to one another and it is hard to see Paris' reactions. Also to stand further aparent from one another when talking to each other as this means we talk louder and creates a sense of larger than life. This will also mean that our space is more effectively used throughout the piece, not just in the beginning and the end (in the beginning we come down from the stage, Eris and I walk onto the blocks where we look survey what is happening, and Aphrodite+Hera walk down the sides of the blocks interacting with the audience, before introducing themselves, we (H,A,A) then go up onto the steps and freeze as Eris introduces herself. This is more effective than our original beginning because the flow between the introductions and the 'party scene' is seamless, and it also shows more of our characters because we interact with each other (and I interact with Eris, so the audience gets the idea that I don't/we don't like her.
"Basic Map of our stage" 17th September
Tension!
A way that we are creating tension without yelling at one another is by using music (from the soundtrack of 'Passion of The Christ'). We are opening our piece with this music while we walk down onto/next to the blocks to make the mood mysterious and also because we aren't talking to one another, our body language coupled with the music increases the tension between Eris and I.
Another way that we are creating tension without yelling one another is by using the Goddesses 'powers'. We've decided that Hera has the power to stop people from being able to make sound/talking (their lips move but no sound comes out). I have a power to freeze people and we aren't sure what Aphrodite can do yet, but something along those lines. The frustration that the use of these powers on one another causes further increases the tension and also makes us larger than life (not mortal/realistic which would not fit with our characters as we are meant to be powerfull Goddesses).
Transitions!
We have got a different transition for each of the Goddesses thoughts, so that it shows the differences between each of the Goddesses imaginations. In Hera's imagination we twirl forward to our positions and then I become a very butch character and Aphrodite becomes very feminine. When I get sent off to Africa I twirl back again to the back of the stage as this shows that I am leaving her imagination. When we (Aphrodite and I) become her angel and devil at the end of the scene, we will do something not typical of our characters (maybe twirl again, not sure, Steph was away today so we couldn't run this past her) which will show that we are again 'in her head' and not our ACTUAL characters. For Aphrodite's Dream we will do some sort of graceful/beautiful ballet move with our arms to start off with and I will seem like someone who she can overpower now that she has the golden apple (not my usual strong, independent self). At the end of her scene I do a sort of marching move which sort of symbolises War and then say my line "I wonder what would happen if I got the golden apple..." and then the other two do the same marching move and run around the audience asking them if they have heard about the war. At the end of my scene we each do our 'move' (Hera-twirl, Aphrodite-Ballet arm thing and Athene-Marching thing) and go back to REAL time where I am the first to say that I don't want the apple because of the poor innocent people and I will lose my voice (Hera uses her power on me, which builds tension in that scene because I want to go and help the people in the war as I am the Goddess of War, but Hera and Aphrodite decide that I will ruin my beauty if I do anything so am made to sit and do NOTHING not even talk, I get very upset), Aphrodite also admits that she doesn't want the apple, and so does Hera. Eris then enters, asking if we have decided on the fairest and this is our last scene which we finish with a freeze frame.
NOTE TO SELF AND GROUP: Remeber to stay at arm lengths or more apart, this creates a larger than life sense and allows the audience to see through the actors onstage to the other side and actors on the otherside. Also forces us to talk louder and slower (CLEARER!).
21st September (2 DAYS TO GO!!)
Final script with cues Heaven lighting (gold and reds), spotlight on the middle of the blocks Goddesses walk down from the stage to the blocks to OPENING MUSIC, Hera starts talking… Hera-I am Hera, the Olympian Queen of all and marriage. I am also the goddess of starry heavens and sky. I am ambitious, I’m powerful, and I’m beautiful. I’m Hera. Hera moves to step and freezes. Aphrodite-Beauty, pleasure, love and procreation, that’s my domain; I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and no one can question that. Aphrodite moves to steps and freezes. Athene-(Slowly, clearly, low voice) War, wisdom, weaving, I am Athene, the virgin goddess of wise counsel and heroic endeavour. (Start walking upstage, stop half way and look back over shoulder at the audience) Oh, did I mention my immense beauty? (Glare at Eris in passing) Athene moves to steps and freezes. Eris- I am Eris. I am the goddess of strife, and of discord. The other goddesses don’t like me much. They say it’s because I’m troublesome and argumentative, but I think they just don’t like me because I’m not as pretty as they are. Ha! STEPS LIGHT UP BLOCKS LIGHTS GO DOWN Hera-I love her dress.
Athene- (Low+husky deflect at end of sentence instead of inflect) I think it’s hideous
Aphrodite-I think it’d look much better on me.
Hera-Oh sure it would! BLOCKS LIGHT UP/SPOTLIGHT ON ERIS Eris- There’s a wedding going on up there- Thetis and Perseus. Goddess and mortal- that's unusual. I wasn't invited- that's not. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to crash the party, then. See, I've even got a present for the bride! Here goes, wish me luck! Spotlight goes down, lights come up fully on the bridge, ‘normal heaven lighting’ Eris moves to the bridge/steps. Athene moves forward crossing her arms, blocking Eris’ way-stare Eris down Aphrodite: What is SHE doing here? (to Hera and Athena) Hera: Darling, you weren’t invited. (to Eris) Eris: And why not, may I ask? I have a gift and everything! Aphrodite: We don’t want any tantrums here Eris: What do ya mean tantrums!? I don’t throw tantrums!!! Athene: Exhibit A! (To audience+Hera+Aphrodite+imaginary party guests) Hera: Please Leave Eris: What? No! Athene: (Grabs Eris’ arms and drags her forward) You, are the Goddess of Discord, and (voice gets louder and more thunderous on each word) We don’t want you here! (Pushes Eris) Eris: YOU CAN’T DO THIS!! Spotlight on blocks, lights on bridge go partway down (creating an isolation feeling for Eris)(Hera, Athene and Aphrodite freeze).I can't believe them! They can be so petty sometimes. Oh look, it's Athene the bully. Always using force to get her way, as you've seen. And the great queen Hera, with the greatest ego on Mount Olympus. To her, being the wife of mighty Zeus is the key to making everyone do what she says. Finally, pretty Aphrodite. Her head is nice enough on the outside, but I'm afraid that inside is a bit... empty. You know, I'm getting a plan. They all think they're so strong, powerful and beautiful- I'll show them! And I shall use this. (pulls apple from box and holds up for crowd to see) Alright, you three! (Spotlight down, Bridge lights up) (unfreeze) One golden apple, for the one fairest goddess. Let’s see who comes out on top. Goddesses look at each other, Hera picks up apple Hera:(Talking to the audience as well as Aphrodite and Athene) Look at my apple! It is my apple; I am the most beautiful and after all married to the most powerful, most handsome god, Zeus (Aphrodite grabs apple out of Hera hand) Aphrodite:(Talking to the audience as well as Hera and Athene) I deserve the apple! I AM after all the goddess of beauty. (to the audience) don’t you think I should get the apple? (Athene steals apple from Aphrodite) Athene: Give the apple here! Those two have nothing on my beauty and wisdom, nothing. It’s mine, surely! (to the audience untill Hera steals the apple from her hand) (Cat fight, Athene ends up holding the apple up out of Hera’s and Aphrodite’s reach) [CUE FOR ZEUS-WHEN ALL THE GODDESSES HAVE THEIR HANDS ON THE APPLE FIGHTING OVER IT] FLASH BANG (Block spotlight goes up) Zeus: Stop this insolence! Why are you three fighting?! Hera:Well, honey, Eris gave us this golden apple, (hold apple up so audience can see) and it’s for the fairest. Don’t you think I should get the apple? I am the prettiest am I not? Aphrodite: OH! Zeus, I am the goddess of Beauty, therefore the fairest, should I not be awarded the apple? Athene:(Sarcastic) Oh, next you two will be saying that your beauty isn’t only skin deep! You’ll both being saying that you have an (Quotation marks) “adorable pancreas” (Goddesses begin bickering) Zeus: ENOUGH! (Goddesses fall to silence) I’m not going to make this decision, it’s not my place. Hera: Husband, what are you talking about? Make a decision now! The decision is obvious of course! (Warning tone) Athene: Zeus!!! (Frustrated) Aphrodite: Choose Zeus! (All talking at once) Zeus: No Hera, that’s exactly why I am not going to choose between the three of you, I’m going to send you to someone else who will decide. FLASH BANG (Bright flash of light-lightning strike feel lights change to earth lighting, more natural colours BIRD SOUNDS START) Goddesses fall to earth, LIGHTS FLICKER IN A LIGHTNING STRIKE WAY (Goddesses start complaining about earth) Zeus: Stop complaining, I’ve sent you to earth to find a mortal man they call Paris, he will choose between you. FLASH BANG (Zeus’ spot light goes down) Hera: ZEUS! Aphrodite: This is your entire fault Hera, now we are stuck in this…unsanitary place, if this doesn’t age me, I don’t know what else will Athene: Oh earth’s not that bad, but Hera, this IS all your fault! Hera: How is this all my fault? Argh (Claps) Paris! Athene: Really under your thumb! (Gestures with thumb) Paris: Did someone call me? (Walk to back of stage behind Paris) Aphrodite: Ah…do you think it talks? Hera: Here, come and have a seat. Do you understand us? Paris: Yes, I do Athene: Of course Paris understands you, Hera, give Paris the apple. (Hand Hera the apple) (Hera gives Paris the apple) Paris: What is this for? An apple? Hera: Yes, a golden apple. That *ahem* Eris gave it to us, and it is meant for the fairest. That is me is it not? Aphrodite: Yeah right, you’re just jealous because Zeus was afraid to pick me over you. Athene: Paris, it is obvious that I am the fairest! Aphrodite: What, the man? (Laughs with Hera, Athene scowls) Hera:(uses her ‘power’ to draw Paris to her) Paris, I’ll give you…Europe and Asia for that apple (Takes Paris to stage left) Paris: Oh I like the sound of that, King Paris! I could name a city after myself- (Athene forcefully guides Paris away from Hera to stage right) Athene: (uses her ‘power’ to pull Paris over to her) If you give ME that apple, I’ll give you such skill in battle that you will never be able to lose. Paris: I could use that, I could conquer- (Aphrodite forcefully guides Paris away from Athene to centre downstage) Aphrodite: (uses her ‘power’ to pull Paris over to her. Paris starts drooling over her beauty) You know, Paris, if I get that apple I’ll give you Helen of Sparta. She’s quite beautiful and shall we say, voluptuous? Paris: Yeah? Really? I like the sound of that! Here:(Pulling Paris towards her with her power) No, I deserve the apple, pick me, I am obviously the most beautiful! Athene: (Pulling Paris towards herwith her power) Paris, pick me! Skill in battle!! Aphrodite:(Stepping between Athene and Paris) I’ve told you already!!! I AM THE GODDESS OF BEAUTY! I deserve that golden apple! (Bickering between the goddesses about how the deserve the apple more than the others, they tell this to the audience as well, then go into a pressure circle around Paris) Paris: STOP! I can’t make this decision! You're all beautiful! You figure it out! (Goddesses all glare at each other, Hera picks up the apple off the ground)
Hera- I wonder what I will do If I get the apple? I’d have the world in my hand. Athene (Spins forward then stands in a ‘cave man’ stance), the cave man would be my slave, and floozy Aphrodite (Aphrodite spins forward) would also be my slave. Hmmm let’s see how this turns out. (Walks back to seat) Hera- Aphrodite! Aphrodite, bring me my world!!!! (Aphrodite brings in globe and hands globe to Hera) Hera- It's time for my daily compliments. Aphrodite-You are sooo pretty,I love your hair, how do you get it so shiny? (Athene stays silent, Hera looks at globe then at Athene) Hera- Where would you like to go Athene? Athene- Grunt Hera-Oops, too late! Hahaha see you in Africa! Bye! Athene-Grunt (Athene spins to back of stage) Aphrodite- Haha this is sooo much better without Athene and her manliness. (laughs, Hera looks at her) Hera- Where would you like to go Aphrodite? Aphrodite- Noooo! Please don't Hera Hera- Where would you like to go Aphrodite? Aphrodite-Oh no, please don’t send me away! I’ll do anything! But if you do have to send me away, then somewhere with men maybe? Hera-Hmmmm China. They have nice men there (laughs) (Aphrodite spins off) Hera- Ahhhhhhh perfect......Dioynoses? Haephatus? Anyone? (Aphrodite and Athena ‘float’ up) Aphrodite and Athene- You have no friends, no-one likes you, and you’ve sent them all off to Africa, and Asia and Australia! Hera places her globe at the front of the stage and goes back to her place Hera-Well that didn’t work out so well (Hera and Athene form statue poses)
Aphrodite-Well, if I were to get the golden apple, Hera would do everything that I said. Hera, go get my mirror (Hera fetches her mirror) See? I told you so! (Giggle) And that freak Athene! Well, she would tell me how beautiful I was aaaall day long! (Turns to Athene) Lower, lower, lower (Athene awkwardly and clumsily gets down till she’s sitting on her knees) Ahhh that’s better. Now Hera, tell me how beautiful I am. Hera- Your hair is very black and your face is very...white. Aphrodite- Oh, I think that you can do better than that! (POWER! Flicks hair) Hera and Athene start giving compliments. Athene lists every body part and says that it is perfect, Hera gives real compliments. Power ends. Hera- Your face is very ah round... Aphrodite- Oh well, it never last long enough any way (Looks into mirror) Oh my gosh! Is that a wrinkle?! Can you see a wrinkle on my forehead? How can I be the fairest with that crater on my head?! (Puts mirror down, Athene comes out of dream) After Aphrodite places Mirror at the front of the stage she returns to her starting position near to Hera. Athene-I wonder how people would treat me if I were to be the fairest. (Looks off into the distance and then flash forward to Athene’s idea about the world if she won the apple) Aphrodite-There’s a war! There’s a war! Have you heard? Hera-Someone do something to help those innocent people! Oh, Athene, Goddess of war, you go and help. Athene-Oh yes, I’ll definitely go and help, I am after all the Goddess of war and wisdom… Aphrodite-Oh no! It's so sharp and pointy! Athene-What? But I have to go and help, it is my duty! Hera-Here, have a seat here, we’ll get you some…weaving to do! Hera-Oh…Wait…She can’t… Athene-What? I’m the goddess of weaving?! Aphrodite-But you might prick yourself! Look, sit here and read a book. Hera-She might ruin her eyesight, those beautiful eyes… Aphrodite-You’re right, Athene, just sit there and…look beautiful, look, you’re already doing a wonderful job! Athene-Oh… Aphrodite-And don’t talk, you might ruin your beautiful voice. I SAID, no talking (Uses power, Athene is muted, unable to talk) (Aphrodite and Hera walk forwards talking about this and that while Athene is left in the chair miserable, realizing that beauty isn’t all that it is cracked up to be) Back to the Goddesses fighting over the apple Athene- Hera, Aprodite, I don’t want the golden apple! Those poor people! Aphrodite- No way, I don’t want it either. Hera, you take it. Hera- I don’t want it. Why don’t we get rid of it or something? (Eris enters) Eris- So, how’s it going? Looks like you haven’t decided who’s the fairest one of all yet. Aphrodite- You can have the apple back, Eris. We don’t want it. Eris- What do you mean you don't want it?? This WASN'T supposed to happen!!! You're supposed to tear eachother's hair out by the roots! Hera- We tried that, and it didn't work. Athene- I won’t be able to talk! And those poor people! Eris- What people? Aphrodite- Yeah, and you can keep the wrinkles as well! Eris- Wrinkles???? Hera- You don’t need friends anyway, right Eris? Eris- I do have friends! Sort of… Anyway, this isn’t a magic apple or anything. It’s just gold, a trinket I found for Thetis. Hera- Well, we still don't want any of it. Athene- We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship. Aphrodite- Yeah... I mean, we are all beautiful. Sort of. Eris- So... None of you want the apple? Hera, Athene, Aphrodite- NO!!! Eris- Alright, alright. I heard you. Too noble and whatnot. Then I guess you don't want this, either? (pulls large, gaudy necklace from inside cloak) Hera- I'll take it! Aphrodite-No way, it totally suits me better! Athene- You two are dreaming! Eris, give it to me! Hera, Athene and Aphrodite chase Eris up the stairs, freeze reaching for the necklace Eris- Haha! You never really learn, do you? Blackout
We have had to not use our thunder bolt/lightning strike sounds because we couldn't find any that sounded quite right, and some that would have been ok, were too hard to get the cues right. So we decided that with the lights flashing and Zeus' voice shouting at us, that THAT would give the effect that we wanted (or close enough).
22nd of September (1 DAY TO GO!)
"Show the three goddesses together as a unit, but they can’t move into each other’s personal space too much or this will dull down the godliness status that they have (they are all powerful, if they move into each other’s space this will make them seem very human like, will have to show the audience this by using strong gestures and long arms when snatching the apple from each other’s grasp at the beginning-haven’t gotten further onto how we will portray the story yet)."
We are portraying or godly nature throughout the rest of the story through our blocking (i.e. standing far apart, not in naturalistic positions on stage) this shows that we are not realistic characters, our postures, how we stand and address each other and the audience and how we talk).
PARIS!
Is no longer the centre of this story. The original is based around how if Paris chose between the three goddesses he would make eternal enemies of the other two. But we have changed the ending because Aphrodite "showing her true form" was not appropriate for onstage, and it was hard to find a true moral of the story to get across to the audience. So instead Paris has become a minor character. We made him a typical male kiwi farmer who can't make a decision. This is more appropriate as Paris not making a decision then leaving allows for a nicer flow to the dream sequences and allows for us to get our moral across with more ease.
Research
All of the research that I did, was mostly to give me a background idea of our myth, and also to give us some motives for certain things (i.e. thinking about the apple like Eve's Apple, it doesn't belong to any one of us, yet the tempting nature of the apple, or just the competition with others, motivates us into competition). Although I had a little background knowledge of our myth, the research that I did helped in the portrayal of my character as I learned more about the Greek Gods, where they hung out (Mt Olympus), their relationships and deities (which helped me when thinking about my relationships with the other characters). CONTEMPORARY!
We have chosen a more contemporary interpretation because- a)the audience will relate more easily b)When we read the myth, we saw the Gods as strong, catty, powerful individuals, and thought about childhood tv programmes like Hercules. We related to the Gods in this way, and we see them portrayed this way. c) Grecian theatre is very rigid and ritualistic. The myth is about beauty, vanity and jealousy, and our moral is very modern. Grecian theatre would make it very difficult to express our moral and these qualities.
Conventions!
Freeze frame, Angel+devil/voices in the head (onstage), Dream sequence/Imaginary flashforward, Pressure circle, Recorded soundscape, Monologues, Spoken thoughts, Chorus of voices ("If only there was someone here to hlep us"), Chorus of Movement
We are using the performance conventions of monologues, spoken thoughts and angel+devil to deliver more personal information to the audience about:
a) the individual characters
b) the situation AND
c) we are also using the conventions to to show the personal opinions of the characters. This is effective because these conventions get 'inside' the characters head/thoughts or force the character to share information. This allows the audience to get a clearer view of the situation and character.
The performance conventions of freeze frames, pressure circles and angel and devil increase tension in the scene without resorting to having to shout at one another (although pressure cirlce coupled with thunderous voices while the person in the person in the middle is almost squeaking in fright gives the effect of Gods putting pressure on a mortal which enhances our role as Gods). Freeze frames are effective because they show a moment of high tension, and when coupled with a a monologue/spoken thought (we have a scene where Eris has just been thrown out of the party, the other Goddesses are very annoyed at her-they are in a freeze frame [TRIANGLE THREE POINTS TO REPRESENT THE DEITY] and Eris is in tantrum mode) the effect in our piece is a moment of high tension+one persons anger. The frozen moment and Eris' rage contrast against each other. As Eris plots, it shows that she is a world apart for us, very different. The moment of high tension that we are in, is what has fueled her rage, so this reminder to the audience AND to her adds to her plotting/revenge.
Audience interaction and imagined flashforwards enhance our roles. I personally treat the audience like they are other guests at the party/gods/goddesses ("Exhibit A"). The way that these conventions that we use enhance our roles is by enhancing our Godly nature (normally actors wouldn't address the audience the way we have-Hera offers them her hand to kiss, being the Queen). The dream sequences show the difference in reality from the figmant of each other's imagination.
Athene
Reality-strong, independant, sharp & clear
Hera's imagination- caveman, unclear, grunts
Aphrodite's imagination- 'freak' monotone
Athene's imagination- told what to do by others, can't go and help in the war, not as independant or strong.
Reality and Imagination=opposites BUT how Hera and Aphrodite see me in reality taken slightly out of proportion for clarity
We are taking our woes to absolute extreme because then the goddesses definately won't want the apple. Series of three dreams once again represents the deity. The Goddesses have to realise that the apple isn't worth what it is, and up untill the dreams, they were willing to give up their friendships and willing to bribe (sometimes give up things i.e. Europe+Asia, Skill in Battle-which given to a mortal could be dangerous). So the dreams have to be extreme to shock them back into 'reality'.
ACTION!
We were improvising our 'cat fights' alot throughout the piece each time we performed/rehearsed (we knew what we had to say but it would never be said in the right order). Since we have gotten more practice done our cat fights (and dialogue) have become easier to do-we know what we are going to do next, what direction to face so that the audience isn't staring at our backs the whole time, and this means that the flow between each section is easier and we feel more at ease on stage.
IMAGINED FLASHFORWARD!
After more feedback, it seems that the blocking of and the transitions between each of our dreams aren't quite clear enough to convey the message that this is a different space, not reality anymore. So today we played around with the idea of using the black box-infront of the gauze on the actual stage-as Hera's throne in her dreams, and she walks up the bridge during her opening and Aphrodite and I both end up on a pillar each. When I get sent to africa, I go and stand where I did on the back of the blocks with my back to the audience to show that I am no longer in the scene, and then when that Angel thing happens, it is maybe just a voice in Hera's head, not our actual person (and Hera can come back down the bridge while that happens). We havent worked through the other two scenes yet, but they would be the same sort of thing with even larger spaces between each of the characters, and using a different space of the stage compared to 'reality'.
23rd of September (TODAY'S THE DAY!)
Each of our dresses + makeup represent our characters in one way or another.
My dress is a grey/silver b ase with straight/clean lines. This is to symbolise/pay tribute to parts of War (the blade of a sword is silver).
The sash is also to symbolise war and the colour (blue) is to make my dress look 'prettier' as our myth is all about beauty, vanity, power etc.
The broach (originally a pendant for a necklace) on the shoulder gives the dress a war quality.
Athene's Dress
Hera-"Crown facepaint"
With our makeup we wanted something that would set us apart from the "mortals" in other myths and also the audience, so that the audience would feel like we were completely different from them. We decided to use facepaint to do this. Hera and Aphrodite had swirly patterns on their faces (Hera had a crown type pattern). My face paint is more war paint, a band across my eyes (in blue-my eyes are blue so this colour also made my eyes more blue which helped make the overall effect quite striking) with a few swirls (in silver). The striking nature of the makeup reflects the strikingness of my character Athene.
MORE PICS AND VIDEO TO FOLLOW
Te toi whakairo, ka ihiihi, ka wehiwehi, ka
Aweawe to ao katoa. Artistic excellence makes the world sit up in wonder
DEPARTMENT VISION
To establish Lincoln High School as a leading Drama environment that recognizes and offers a holistic programme which caters for different learning styles and needs, and which strives to overcome barriers to learning. Individual needs should be recognized and addressed, and links with the community fostered and strengthened. Quality theatrical experiences should be provided for all students, so that each student feels validated, successful and able to achieve to the best of their ability.
Lincoln High School is a state secondary school for Year 9 to Year 13 students. It is a modern, co-educational high school located in the township of Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch and near Lincoln University. The school sets very high standards for its 1400 students and offers a wide range of courses and activities. We value learning with others, individual learning and life long learning.
We are proposing to devise a piece of theatre which directly meets the needs of our diverse students at Lincoln High School and challenges all students, from those with special learning needs to those talented and gifted students to aim high , in keeping with our school values and the spirit of the Curriculum document. The project will also aim to address cultural diversity and be in keeping with New Zealand’s multicultural context.
The Project:
- The performance will be structured through a range of narrative devices, including use of Māori mythology and fables from many Lands.- Students will research and explore (while using process Drama and a range of elements and conventions) historical/ social groups whose voices and stories weave a kete full of riches.
- The purpose behind this project is to give students an opportunity to establish their sense of place and their contribution to New Zealand as well as acknowledging the experience of past generations
Students will interpret, record and challenges our understanding of what is means to be a New Zealander, within a historical context through the lens of fable/ mythology/ metaphor.
Students will select and research stories from a selected pool of ‘rich’ and relevant stories and create a devised performance piece using extended metaphors, visual images, supported by a range of technologies (projection, video, sound and lighting, masks, basic costuming).
Students will be encouraged to be independent learners in a mutually respectful environment, where students are given the tools to shape and refine a range of narratives, which will be linked together through technologies and a range of narrative structures.
We feel really fortunate to be selected as part of the Artists in Schools Programme and to have the opportunity to work with Lin Clark. Lin has an extensive CV and been a very active Director, lecturer and Curriculum developer of NCEA standards. We will be aiming to keep a digital log of activities as we journey together in the devising process. Students have been encouraged to write parts of their journal entries into the blog, to give other schools an idea of what we have been doing. We are very excited to be able to showcase our work on the 23rd September in the school hall.
Sandra McLean - HOD Drama- Year 12
Amy Edwards- Drama teacher- Year 13
Artist in Residence comments made by the students about the project:
‘Having Lin with us has been a totally awesome experience. I learnt so much while having heaps of fun, and I would love to have it all over again!’
Tiffany Pascoe
Year 12 Drama
‘We liked having Lin to work with because she gave us so many ideas and she was happy. This was a great experience for us because the Year 12’s and 13’s students got to work together to put on this great show. She put into perspective all the possibilities there are and to change a plain story into a magnificent performance. Very valuable experience and to hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ makes it even more special and a better experience.’
AliseThomson, Emma Waipouri and Nicola Scobie
Year 12 & 13 Drama
‘It is going to be truly difficult not seeing Lin everyday! I got very used to seeing her shining face – it was definitely something I looked forward to everyday!’
Heather Alexander
Year 13 Drama
‘When you’re devising the key is to be able to open up your mind and let your wildest thoughts roam and come alive on stage. This devising experience has allowed that more than any other. The artist brings in inspiration, advice and bold ideas to extend your piece further. The unique set we had gave you the opportunity to really make the performance a larger than life experience.’
‘Lin our artist has been very inspirational to us all. This Term we have all learnt and grown in our confidence and abilities, but we have also learnt what it’s like to be a true theatre performer. She embraces our talents and skills, and guided us to create an amazing show. We would love to have her back next year!’
Maddie Moorhouse
Year 12 Drama
‘This assessment was way different to any others that we have done in the past. The extensive set, props and costumes allows us to put on a complete, extensive show beyond our hopes and dreams.’
Laura Hayward, Abby Leggett and Nicole Allchurch
Year 13 Drama
‘It was really beneficial to have Lin as our artist in residence. She was an awesome addition to our group of teachers. Can we keep her?’
Jordon Jones
Year 12 Drama
“The Chance of a Lifetime”
‘I never would have been able to pull off a one man show without Lin. Her experience guided me.’
Andy McCarthy
Year 13 Drama
‘Having an artist in residence was an awesome experience. It was also a great opportunity to have a different opinion and ideas. I think it really helped and the things we could do with the funding were great. It was beneficial to our devising and all the help and feedback we received was fantastic! Ps. Lin is awesome. We love you.’
Chloe, Si and Kyra
Year 13 Drama
‘Working with our artist in residence has been an experience we won’t forget. Lin brought an extra stretch of creative mind to our assessment and challenged our ambitions.’
Jen and Heather
Year 13 Drama
“Lin, you’re a dead-set ripper mate. What a hoot.”
Kate, Lucy, Jed
Year 12 Drama
‘This experience made us open our eyes to the possibilities drama can bring into our lives. It gave us confidence, skills and friendship with people that if we hadn’t had this experience we would never have met.’
Stephanie Duncan and Stacey Abernethy
Year 12 Drama
STUDENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROJECT:
This year the Lincoln High School Drama Department has been very lucky to receive an artist in residence. This is a program set up to pair a limited number of schools each with a theatre professional. Students get to work with this experienced artist in small groups of 2-4 actors and it’s an absolutely fantastic experience. This is the first year Lincoln High School has been involved with the program and most likely it will not be the last! Much to our luck we were paired with a truly remarkable woman, a woman who has worked within the industry for many years and is a well-known director at the Repertory Theatre in Christchurch.
Lin Clark is an experienced theatre practitioner and really knows her onions! She has provided invaluable input and is a source of support and motivation for us senior drama students. There can be times when we’re dithering around with an idea, not making a step in any direction. Then we see the staunch figure of Lin striding towards us and the situation turns into something like this: “Oh-no, Lin’s coming! Quick, should we do it, yes? No? Yes! You stand there, I’ll stand here…now, Act!” So by the time Lin’s arrived at our area, not only have we made a decision but we’re actually on our feet acting it! But it’s not as if we fear Lin, oh no, I think everyone can agree that Lin has never been anything other than helpful and kind to us.
It has been a long 10 weeks, but at the same time the clock has been racing towards performance date at a very scary pace! All through the bewildering, distressing and scary time that is devised drama, Lin has been a rock, letting our panic just wash over her, keeping her head as one-by-one we all lose ours.
Lin is a very special lady and we have all grown to respect her a lot. Her ideas have helped us so much and her support has been extremely motivating. I don’t think we all understood at first how much this project meant to her. It was hers as much as it was ours and our performances on the night reflect upon her talents too. Lin has shown an admirable attitude towards the project and her commitment has been extraordinary with her turning up every day of every week for 10 weeks (that’s more than some of the students!) as well as some after school and weekend rehearsals. It has been a great learning experience working with Lin and all of the students of the year 12 and 13 drama classes are so grateful for all of her hard work. The fabulous performance evening Te Kete Nui wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without her excellent guidance and dedication.
So big thanks from the year 12 & 13 drama classes to the extraordinary Lin Clark!
Heather Alexander
EXEMPLAR OF PORTFOLIO WORK COVERING 8 WEEK PROCESS
Christy Ballantyne Year 12
22nd July
How the Koala lost his tail
1Q) What universal themes does this myth touch on?
A) Curiosity for truth, the need to know everything and knowledge of why everything is why it is.
2Q) Why should it stay in our collection?
A) Because it wasn’t until 1810 when Europeans came to Australia and saw the Koala that they thought it was a Monkey and couldn’t understand why it didn’t have a long tail. So they came up with these theories which have stuck around today. Important to stay in the collection because we are all a bit European, and it shows humans need to have a theory for everything…
3) Brief notes on other myths we read about.
Notes: Earths creation-Maori NZ imp. To US , Creation of music, coming to terms with death, war and how coming to a compromise is better, the creation of animals-dingoes from mice and fighting a drought-cloud eater.
23rd July
1) How many roles do we need and how do we organize them?
-5 parts, but we can use a voice over or one person can play two parts (one part being voice over)
2) What strengths as performers/designers would we bring to the production?
-Past knowledge of Greek mythology (Classics + studies of myths), wide range of experience of different styles within the groups of performance (Musical, Greek, Shakespeare etc), Singers, Costume designers that would give each character an individuality and reflect the Godliness nature of the individual.
3) What special talents/creative ideas can we bring to the myth?
Singing, costumes, technical-voice overs? for Zeus as the 5th character because he is on stage less but he is also the most important god, so him being portrayed by a voice over gives him an extra supernatural-ness that the other gods don’t have?
24th July
Bare bones of my life in 10 words:
Born, Sockburn, Hannah, Springston, Gemma, NEW, LHS, Joseph, Grease, Prebbleton.
Bare bones of our myth-
Wedding of Peleus + Thetis-gods invited except Eris. She arrived, was turned away. Angrily cast golden apple amongst goddesses "To the Fairest." 3 goddesses claimed apple--Aphrodite, Hera + Athena. Zeus mediated. Paris to decide the issue. Goddesses offered gifts for favor. Chose Aphrodite, her promise-Helene. Start of Trojan War
(50 WORDS EXACTLY :D)
Research:
Universal concerns are raised on the myth: Vanity, competition, cheating, jealousy, judgment, Marriage.
What connection to today’s world? Vanity very much a big part of today’s world, we all want to look our best, want the best (or at least the media/celebrity world raise the stakes to that level-plastic surgery, cosmetics and fashion).
Similar or related myths
Similar themes: Beauty, THREE daughters (three goddesses), Jealousy, Marriage. VERY SIMILAR TO MODERN DAY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OR CINDERELLA.
Similar or related myths
Story from: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_4.htm
Once upon a time there was a king with three daughters. They were all beautiful, but by far the most beautiful was the youngest, Psyche. She was so beautiful that people began to neglect the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was very jealous, and asked her son Cupid (the boy with the arrows) to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster. When he saw how beautiful she was, Cupid dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her.
Despite her great beauty no-one wanted to marry Psyche. Her parents consulted an oracle, and were told that she was destined to marry a monster, and they were to take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. The west wind took her and wafted her away to a palace, where she was waited on by invisible servants. When night came her new husband visited her, and told her that he would always visit her by night and she must never try to see him.
Although her invisible husband was kind and gentle with her, and the invisible servants attended to her every desire, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to allow her sisters to visit her. When they saw how she lived they became very jealous and talked Psyche into peeking at her husband, saying that he was a monster who was fattening her up to be eaten and that her only chance of safety was to kill him. Psyche took a lamp and a knife, but when she saw her beautiful husband, Cupid, she was so surprised she dripped some hot wax onto his shoulder, waking him. He took in the situation at a glance and immediately left Psyche and the magnificent palace she had been living in disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Psyche roamed about looking for her husband, and eventually in desperation approached his mother, Venus. Still angry, the goddess set various tasks for Psyche, all of which she passed, with a bit of help from ants and river gods. At last Cupid found out what was going on, and he persuaded Jupiter to order Venus to stop her persecution of Psyche. Then they were married and lived happily ever after - and it really was ever after since Psyche was made a goddess.
What further ideas does this myth give us?
Show the three goddesses together as a unit, but they can’t move into each other’s personal space too much or this will dull down the godliness status that they have (they are all powerful, if they move into each other’s space this will make them seem very human like, will have to show the audience this by using strong gestures and long arms when snatching the apple from each other’s grasp at the beginning-haven’t gotten further onto how we will portray the story yet), but the theme that runs throughout the Greek mythology is that Goddesses appear in threes and this makes them more powerful, so when Paris is trying to make a decision, the three ganging up on him and pressuring him to make a decision (and to make two other powerful enemies at the same time) will build tension and the final decision will come across with more impact when Aphrodite cheats-the shock will hopefully be quite good, because we were going in one direction trying to get him to make a decision, then all of a sudden she decides that she will just use her powers and cheat, and that’s not fair on the other two because Paris can’t make a real judgment then as he is too overcome by her beauty (as Cupid was so overcome by Psyche’s beauty that he pricked himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her-unable from then on unable to stop loving her-although it worked out for Psyche in the end) .
-Introduce each goddess INCLUDING Eris at the beginning0have a stage configuration of a goddess standing back to back in a sort of medium-large circle and as each one is introduced, the rest crouch down OUT of character as the other one stands up and walks around saying like “I’m Athena, the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, and the defense of towns, heroic endeavor, weaving, pottery and other
crafts ” crafts”
, of course each goddess thinks the best of themselves so they talk themselves up, this sets the scene of vanity and introduces who is who for the audience, and a bit of a history/classics lesson for the audience about what each goddess is representative of.
Bits and bobs related to our myth
In the story which follows, ‘The Judgment of Paris’, we see how the gods could play with the lives of men (Trojan war)Judgment of Paris sets up for the story of that.
APHRODITE was the great Olympian goddess of beauty, love, pleasure and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman usually accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her attributes included a dove, apple, scallop shell and mirror. In classical sculpture and fresco she was often depicted nude. Aphrodite is the goddess of sexual love, also associated with physical beauty in all its forms. (Show her beauty and grace through movement and dance? Softly spoken, pretty, soft colours on clothes have symbols of her attributes on clothing)
HERA was the Olympian queen of the gods and the goddess of women and marriage. She was also a goddess of the sky and starry heavens. She was usually depicted as a beautiful woman wearing a crown and holding a royal, lotus-tipped staff. Sometimes she held a royal lion or had a cuckoo or hawk as her familiar. Hera, wife of Zeus, is the goddess of marriage and the home, and as such is always smarting from her husband’s sexual adventures. (Use gold on her dress to symbolise royality and use beads to represent jewels. Talk with a posher accent and walk very smoothly. Get's very frustrated when Zeus doesn't do what she wants)
ATHENE (or Athena) was the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, and the defense of towns, heroic endeavor, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aegis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon. Athene is a virgin goddess of war and wisdom. (Grey, silver and blues for her dress, a strong character, sheild? spear? sword? Possibly have snake pattern in face paint on arm instead of having it on a cloak)
ERIS was the goddess or spirit ( daimona ) of strife, discord, contention and rivalry. She was often represented specifically as the daimon of the strife of war, who haunted the battlefield and delighted in human bloodshed. Because of Eris' disagreeable nature she was the only goddess not to be invited to the wedding of Peleus and
Thetis . Thetis.
When she turned up anyway, she was refused admittance and, in a rage, threw a golden apple amongst the goddesses inscribed "To the fairest." Three goddesses laid claim it, and in their rivalry brought about the events which led to the Trojan War. Eris was closely identified with the war-goddess
Enyo . Enyo.
Indeed Homer uses the names interchangeably. Her Roman name was Discordia. Sister of Ares (the god of War), daughter of Zeus and Hera, the hand of Eris can be seen in every quarrel, feud and disagreement. Her eternal and unforgiving rage was the cause of fear and respect on Mount Olympus, though despised by the Olympians they dared not confront her. She rode into battle with her brother and companion, Ares, but she was more generally known for the less deadly forms of conflict; political strife, personal contention, rivalry and wrangling. (Dark grey and black for her dress/tunic/cloak, cheeky, mischievous)
Paris had the misfortune to be chosen by the gods as a judge at the dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite about who was the most beautiful. (see Helen for this story). He went to Sparta and was welcomed by Menelaus. Paris answered the hospitality with treachery, stealing Menelaus fortunes and taking Helen with him. This led to the Trojan War. Paris was rescued from being killed by Menelaus by Aphrodite, who surrounded him with a cloud and brought him back to Troy. It was also Aphrodite who helped him kill Achilles by blowing his arrow to the hero's mortal heel, but Paris himself was killed with an arrow from Philoctetes. Just before his death, Paris begged his beloved nymph Oenone to heal him, but she refused. After Paris death Oenone committed suicide. (Kiwi farmer, can't make a decision)
-Another version of the story
Aphrodite cheats by revealing her body (anyone who sees her in her true form cannot help but to fall for her) except for her magic girdle. EVEN in this version, the contest is unequal; Paris is overpowered by her beauty and, (contrary to the story’s usual title) is unable to exercise his judgment. We could see this as a metaphor for ‘falling in love’.
In another version, found in Euripedes and Apollodorus, Hera being angry with Paris for choosing Aphrodite, creates a phantom Helen, whom he weds, while the real Helen is spirited away to Egypt by Hermes upon the orders of Zeus. This implies that Paris does not relate to the real woman, but to a phantasm of his own imagination.
-In myths, goddesses often appear in threes (Also the Holy Trinity)-representing aspects of a single deity (dictionary meaning-a god, goddess, or other being regarded as divine, basically meaning that the goddesses-who each represented different things, war, love, beauty-together as one represented the divine God status. Singularly they would not have been as strongly represented of the divine status, but together they are more powerful, so Paris had a hard decision. If he chose one, he’d make powerful enemies of the other two). (When we stand in the freeze frame/triangle-three points of a triangle, it can be linked back to this research, with Hera standing at the top of the triangle as the most powerful. Some issues that the diety causes is that the Goddesses sometimes end up acting the same. We have to concentrate to make sure that our characters are very different).
Gods and Goddesses
Story Info from: http://www.livingmyths.com/Greek.htm
~The gods were different from the heroes not so much by their strength as by their supernatural power. They demanded worship from heroes and men alike and, in return, were able to perform miracles, offer supernatural protection, or give magical gifts (as in the story of Perseus). (We demand that Paris treat us as Gods, not as common mortals. We do this by treating him like a common mortal)
~The Olympian pantheon of gods was the most well-known, each deity possessing a distinctive character. Twelve of them famously lived on Mount Olympus. (We talk about Mt Olympus in our opening)
~In addition to these twelve Olympian deities were Hades, who ruled the Underground realm with Persephone, his queen, and also the dark goddess Hecate, who lived with them. Hestia, goddess of the Hearth, was replaced by Dionysus in the fifth century BCE. (In the Judgment of Paris we see how Gods play with the lives of men)
~The full extent to which humans are ruled by the gods only becomes clear when we learn that Aphrodite set up the contest , presumably knowing that she held the trump card. She did so in order to punish Tyndareus , husband of Leda, for dishonouring her. Pausanias relates that Tyndareus put fetters on Aphrodite’s statue in her temple, because he felt that her amorous powers should be confined to marriage. The outraged goddess decided to make all three of his daughters unfaithful to their husbands. The most famous daughter was Helen of Troy, although strictly speaking her father was probably Zeus, who seduced Leda in the form of a swan on a night when she also slept with her husband. (Not applicable for our interpretation of our myth, but interesting for background research)
~ The failure to invite Eris, Strife (echoed in the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty), represents a dishonouring comparable with Tyndareus’ treatment of Aphrodite. The implication is that even destructive deities are essential to the psyche and to society, and will make their presence felt if denied . Similarly, strife is a necessary part of marriage. ("We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship and livlihoods", in our version, if Athene was to win the apple, the world would fall to ruin because she couldn't go and help in the war effort because Aphrodite's place essentially has been taken by her. In Hera's dream she has great power, and holds the world in her hand. She can cause earthquakes and banish however wherever she likes, no matter the consequences-banishing Athene to Africa would mean that she couldn't go and help in other places or help other people, as is her nature).
Eris is associated with Ares, god of war, who in turn is amorously connected to Aphrodite.
APPLE
~ The marriage at which the fateful apple is produced is unusual, being between a mortal man and a goddess. (We talk around Paris, as if he isn't really there until I tell Hera to give Paris the apple)
~The apple thrown by Eris is perhaps related to Eve’s apple , representing a fall from unity to disunity (This could be symbolised when we fall to earth-the fall to earth from Mt Olympus symbolising us falling from unity to disunity. On earth we aren't presented as a front as we were on Mt Olympus). The contest itself resembles other mythical contests , especially that between three Celtic heroes, including Cuchulainn, over which of them is the greatest hero. Here the role played by Eris in the Greek myth is paralleled by the mischief-maker Bricriu.
Another version of our myth
Story from: �60�http://www.livingmyths.com/Greek.htm
At about this time the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the hero and the sea-goddess, was celebrated on Mount Pelion. All the gods and goddesses were invited, with the noted exception of Eris, the Goddess of Strife, who was hideous and disagreeable. Angered at being left out of the nuptuals she strode into the middle of the wedding feast and threw a golden apple into the assembled company. It landed between the three most powerful goddesses, Hera, Athene and Aphrodite. Picking it up, Zeus found it was inscribed ‘For the Fairest’. Wisely deciding not to judge between the three deities himself, Zeus nominated the beautiful Paris as arbiter, but first he sent Hermes to enquire whether he would be willing to act as judge. Paris agreed and so a time was set for the three goddesses to appear to him on Mount Ida.
When the day came, Paris sat himself on a boulder and waited with beating heart for the arrival of the three great deities. All at once a great light appeared which covered the entire mountain. At first Paris was blinded, but then the goddesses cloaked their light in cloud so that he was able to look at them. First Hera, the great queen, approached him and flaunted her beauty in front of him. Radiant with glory she made him a promise. If he awarded her the apple, she would grant him wealth and power. He would rule over the greatest kingdom on earth. Paris felt the excitement of this and his ambition rose up and yearned for her gift.
After that, grey-eyed Athene approached him, drawing near and bending down, so that he might look into the magical depths of her eyes. She promised him victory in all battles, together with glory and wisdom - the three most precious gifts a man could have. This time Paris felt his mind leap with excitement and with desire for the riches of knowledge and the glory of prowess.
Then it was the turn of Aphrodite. Hanging back a little, she tilted her head so that her hair fell forward, concealing a blush on her face. Then she loosened the girdle of her robe and beneath it, Paris caught sight of her perfectly formed breast, white as alabaster.
‘Paris,’ she said, and her voice seemed to sing inside his head. ‘Give me the apple and in return I will give you the gift of love. You will possess the most beautiful woman in the land, a woman equal to me in perfection of form. With her you will experience the greatest delights of love-making. Choose me, Paris, and she will be yours.’
Then Paris, overpowered by the intoxication of her words and her beauty, found himself handing her the apple without even pausing to reflect on his decision, guided only by the strength of his desire.
So it was that Paris awarded the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite, and Hera and Athene became his implacable enemies. True to her promise, Aphrodite gave him Helen, the most beautiful woman living on the earth at that time - but, in order to enjoy her, he had to snatch her from her powerful husband, Menelaus. So began the terrible ten-years’ war between the Trojans and the Greeks in which many a brave hero lost his life, including Paris himself, and after which the great hero Odysseus wandered the seas for a further ten long years before returning home. (Parts of this could be used in our interpretation)
28th July 28
What was the hardest part/aspect about translating your bare bones into movement?
I think that the hardest thing was that some of the action was actually affected by voice/sound, which alerted a response, and the way that we started doing our action of our barebones with the mime made it difficult as we could not tell if we had been alerted or not (example, when Eris throws the golden apple we all have our backs to her, so we do not know when she has thrown it, but if she was to say something like “To the fairest” or “She who is the most beautiful may lay the claim” this would alert us and also alert the audience to the focus on the apple and also it may make it clearer as to WHY we are fighting over the apple-we all think we are fairest and deserve to have it).
Which parts of the story are going to be challenging to act out?
Well, I think that the middle section when Zeus sends us to Paris is going to be a challenge to get our brains around because of the number of people, it may be that Jordon turns around and becomes a booming voice, or the three goddesses suddenly appear down on earth-the transition between god world and earth is going to be difficult because we haven’t really had a chance to think about it and also the sort of stage we are acting on-we can’t just walk off and back on again. Zeus is necessary to the scene as he is the King of Olympus and is usually the peace keeper, so the fact that in this instace that he is stepping back back from making a decision, is quite shocking in a way, and it also creates a link to Earth and Paris.
In what way has the quality of your feedback changed from yesterday?
We ran out of time for feedback…but had a few questions just to make sure they had the story straight, which they did
What did you learn from feedback given for your specific group? What ideas/questions do you need to think about?
Making the actions obvious and clear making each ‘statement’ about who we are and what we are doing deliberate so that there is no confusion (why we are fighting over the apple, we only managed to get up to the fighting over the apple bit).
29th July
Feedback:
-Are you still going to show her in her ‘true form’?
-The formal beginning (stylized) worked very well, would be good if that slower pace could be carried through
-Hard to tell Jordon’s character at the moment as she changes so often-story heavily reliant on voice/voice over (Zeus)
Reflect on Feedback
We have decided to use the technologies and when the goddesses get sent from Mount Olympus to earth, we are going to use a flash of light, and use a different colour light for the two different places to show the difference. The flash of light will represent Zeus’ power as he sends us to Paris and we find ourselves on earth (our slight variation on the story)-Zeus is often depicted with a lightning bolt so the flash of light-a voice will say something along of the lines (possibly) of “The fairest will be chosen by Paris of Troy”.
The three goddesses body language will (possibly-haven’t talked to the others yet) go from vanity (“I’m fairest in the land”), the fight over the apple (want to prove that they are the fairest), to shame when Zeus tells them off, to disgust when they end up on earth, then a fake ‘love’ for Paris because they want to make the best case for themselves as the most beautiful.
We have talked about showing Aphrodite’s ‘true form’ in a few different ways-wearing an undergarment and the ‘magic girdle’ but that seems to be rather random for our piece i.e. the magic girdle seems very ancient and we are trying to play it more contemporary. We have also talked about her using her womanly charms and seducing Paris (therefore using her powers) but we’d have to make it very obvious that this was what she was doing-casting a spell over Paris so that he’d chose her.
SYMBOLS
A golden apple-represents beauty (gold painted), linked to Aphrodite (beauty), a part of the story.
A map of earth (to show Europe and Asia-Hera)-blue and green lights when Hera uses her charm to try and get Paris to chose her. Symbolizes earths green-land and blue-oceans (Europe and Asia are her bribes)
Yellow/ gold/orange lights represent the goddesses’ power-at the party
ZAP!-Lightning bolt to represent Zeus, as his character is often seen with one-this is also the change from Mt Olympus to Earth (a flash of light and a sound of a lightning bolt from Zeus)
Sword + shield + spear-Athene=War, strength, power and might.
Type of narration? We don’t have a lot of narration in our piece as we have a solid story/structure. We do have a part at the beginning where the goddesses introduce themselves and give clues as to why things in the story happen (the vanity, the reason why Eris wasn’t invited to the party), and this is a sort of self narration at the beginning. We may have a narration/voiceover at the end to give an account of what happens next (the Trojan war) as well being aware that this may become to anticlimax, but it also may be nice to end in the same way we started. This would make the story a circular narrative as we start with the Goddesses giving accounts of who they are.
The overall style of performance is going to be a mix of mythical and modern. Our myth is Greek, but we don’t want to act it out in traditional Greek style (we don’t have the stage set up and we think that it’d be boring to be honest), so we have decided to make it slightly more contemporary, but also keep the mythical theme running through it with the costuming and the haughty language of the goddesses (this also showing the vanity-a major theme in the myth-“Beauty, pleasure, love, procreation. That’s my entire domain. I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and none can question that.”
We also want to keep our performance slightly stylized, as in our feedback, it was said that this worked for our piece. We haven’t yet come up with many ideas as to how to do this, but once we get moving I’m sure it will happen.
We have talked about a modern application of our myth, depending on the length of our piece and if it would work well, but we don’t know as of yet how it would work. We have got a few different ideas about vanity and boyfriends, and that sort of thing…
Narrative styles that would suit our myth could also be a sort of media type thing, where the goddesses have the spotlight on them and they are delivering an account of the what is happening, what they saw etc. this would work because they like the attention and the spotlight creates this, drawing the focus to them (one person speaking one stage) and the idea/theme of attention seeking, wanting the spotlight is part of the story also relates to today's society.
5th August
Decided not to make the story a circular narrative as we think that:
a) it would make the story even longer than needed
b) we think that we can get a strong story from the myth as we have changed the ending of the myth.
c) there would be no point having an account of what happens next as it is all destruction, and we want to focus on the beauty/vanity. We don't want to make the myth to complicated to tell.
SO our myth is going to by a linear story, and at this stage we have very few entrances and exits which is good for us as it means less stress and less transitions and no blackouts as a last resort.
Working on character: Process conventions
The Judgement of Paris
Starring:
Christy: Athene
Stacey: Hera
Steph: Aphrodite
Jordon: Eris
Paris
Zeus to be played by a recorded voice over-to be cast
Role on the wall:
Athene-
Xena type character
Very strong
Independent
Feminine
Wise-shown by a few wise quotes "We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship"
Immortal-played in 20's to bring the cattyness through
I am a very strong and independant goddess/women, yet still very feminine. I am the goddess of wise councel and I feel that I may be smarter than others around me (although Aphrodite may have some beauty, I far am superior because of my other abilities, as well as having the fairest looks). I can be quite forceful when going for what I want, and if something is standing in my way I will do my best and not let it stop me.
The role on the wall helped as it helped our group to create differences and see the differences between each of the goddesses in our myth (so they weren't all being played the same). For example, Aphrodite is going to be played quite flirty and flimsily-what we sort of imagine a 'play boy bunny'- as this shows her aparent beauty, but also shows her cunningness towards the other two and Eris. One the other hand Hera is being played in a motherly, nuturing type fashion as this seemed appropriate as she is the Olympian queen of the gods and the goddess of women and marriage (so fertility). Having that motherly nature is almost overpowering and she takes it to extremes, being overprotective possibly, overly motherly and Athene is very much like Xena (the warrior princess but more stylised).
We worked together with the group to do this exercise and it was really helpful because everyone contributed to everyone's ideas of their character which helped make our characters more 3D and gave each other's more ideas (Jordon got stuck on what to write for Paris, and we were a great help to her). Also being able to see how our characters were becoming so different gave us more ideas too. For example, because of the differences and they all think that they are better than each other, we want them to all get really catty and Paris to realise that it's the beauty on the inside that counts, not on the outside-so maybe he plants the apple so no one gets the apple, or the tree grows and many years later it becomes just another apple tree.
10 August
Today we drafted and worked on our series of monologues. The main idea is to intorduce each goddess and tell the audience who she is, and what her domain is, start getting across the theme of vanity, show differences in personality traits and also tell the audience why Eris wasn't invited the party. So Hera, Aphrodite and Athene each have a two line or so intro where we each state who we are, then say what quatlities we have/what our powers our. The Eris introduces herself and tells the audience about her woes how she isn't invited, why she thinks this is, and that she'll get her revenge (leaving the audience in suspense to see how). After this scene we will go to the party and we will see the three goddesses telling Eris to leave, Eris then throwing the golden apple and the story commencing...Our research that we did earlier on in the process (24th July) was a big help here to see what how each goddess differed and what her domain was. Also when looking at she was inchanrge of it gave us ideas of how she would act and what she would say, for example although Athene is very war orientated-strong, independant, almost manly-she is also the goddess of weaving and other crafts which gives her a feminine touch, so we imagine her to be strong, yet feminine (see role on the wall).
Hera- I am Hera, the Olympian Queen of all and marriage. I am also the goddess of starry heavens and sky. I am ambitious, I’m powerful, and I’m beautiful. I’m Hera.
Aphrodite- Beauty, pleasure, love and procreation, that’s my entire domain, I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and no one can question that.
Athene- War, wisdom, weaving and other crafts, I am Athene, the virgin goddess of wise counsel and heroic endeavor. Oh, did I mention my immense beauty?
Eris- I am Eris. I am the goddess of strife, and of discord. According to Zeus, that's why I wasn't invited to the wedding of Perseus and Thetis, nobody likes quarreling at a wedding. Ha! More likely Hera made sure I wasn't coming so that I wouldn't ugly up the place. Those 'beautiful' goddesses make me sick! They think they're all that. I'll show them- see if I don't!
The series of monologues is a better convention to use than straight dialogue because it allows us to interact with the audience, but also lets us deliver information in a more direct way.
18th August
Yesterday we got together (it was the first day with me having my voice back after losing it, so was the first day that we could actually get some vocab going, seeing what our characters would say and how they would react to certain circumstances). We came up with the idea that each goddess would go off in her own little thought bubble (Imaginary flashforward) about what would her life be like if she won the golden apple, and what would the world be like (if she cared about the world). Hera makes Aphrodite and Athene give her “daily compliments”, and then sends Athene off to Africa. She then sends Aphrodite off to Asia, and finds herself without any friends (her beauty makes everyone not question her commands, especially with her being Zeus’ wife). Aphrodite then imagines what would happen if she won the apple. She becomes very vain, and everything about her has to be perfect. All the men fall for her and the world soon is going to be unpopulated because of this. Aphrodite then notices a wrinkle on her face and goes up to the audience showing her fear of this ugliness, when actually, there is no wrinkle, she has just become paranoid (Athene and Hera are standing in the back trying to calm her telling her that it doesn’t exist). Athene then goes into her own thoughts about her life if she was awarded the fairest. Hera and Aphrodite come on telling the audience in a panic about the Great War, and Athene wants to go and help the war effort. But they won’t let her because she might break a nail, and ruin her beautiful hands, or get blood stains on her clothes. Athene going into shock about not being able to be the goddess of war is guided to a seat where she is told to weave, but “Oh wait, she can’t she do that, she might prick herself and ruin her hands”, then is told to read a book, but “No, she can’t do that either, you might get a paper cut”. Then Athene is then told not to talk in case she hurts her beautiful voice, she finds herself not able to do anything except to stare into space. All three goddesses come to the conclusion that they and the world would be better off without one of them winning the golden apple, and become friends again, realizing that beauty is not skin deep, but also on the inside (that each goddess has qualities for helping people i.e. Athene with her wisdom and war efforts). On the lead up to these thoughts and possibly our highest point of tension, we had a pressure circle, trying to pressure Paris into making a decision on which Goddess was the fairest. I spoke up and said that I thought that just the pressure circle was too obvious that it was going to happen, and also it possibly (I’m not sure as I haven’t seen our performance from the audience’s point of view) makes the goddesses look too young and catty. I first suggested that we stand apart from Paris and throw pressuring remarks at him, but we decided that we needed some movement to increase the tension. So we are going to start off by talking to the audience telling them that Paris should pick us. We then go into a pressure circle. We continued to work on these two parts today and make them more fluid and flow between the other parts of our narrative.
Our main ideas that we want to convey to our audience are the themes of vanity, and how beauty is not only skin deep, beauty is on the inside too. We are really going to push this at the end when we are going to talk about (in character) how beauty is on the inside too (Aphrodite), how beauty isn’t worth costing friendship (Hera), or your outlook on life/what you usually enjoy (Athene). We aren’t exactly sure on what we are going to say yet, and we are going to have to be very careful that what we say doesn’t become cliché or cheesy (what we tried to improve today didn’t work, so we will have to sit down and work out some lines). This last part, the end is our weakest part because we haven’t spent a lot of time working on it as of yet.
Conventions that we are going to use to tell our story are: pressure circle (increase tension to put pressure on Paris to choose between the three goddesses), voices in the head/conscience type thing (emotional pressure on Hera when she realizes that she doesn’t have any friends anymore and that she doesn’t want the apple), monologues (to get across messages, to portray characters and give information for example at the beginning when Eris isn’t to the party), tableaux (draw focus to certain parts of the stage, and give the audience a start off picture for a scene or an ending picture for a scene), spoken thoughts (to tell the audience what the character is thinking) and voiceover (for Zeus’ character).
We are really exploring our roles and characters because our characters could become very similar if we aren’t careful, they could also become boring because they could end up being the same as our everyday selves. Also the focus in the scene because of the high statuses of the goddesses, and the scale of the production we need to make the focus balanced across the stage. So we have been playing with tableaux’s, and where we are standing on the stage in relation to one another.
27th August-Reflection
Our goals today for slot were:
1) To finish devising the ending of our piece (as well as we could without Hera)
2) Start working with the apple (Props)
3) To think about Costume, Hair and Makeup
4) Get feedback on our performance
People seemed to respond well to my introduction, even though I was pretty much improvising it. Part of the feedback was that we needed to talk more in our introductions about ourselves, but I'm not sure that making our introductions longer will be of benifit because I think it might justdraw out the process of introducing the Goddesses-but we shall see if there is more to add into the introductions to make them longer. I did find that a lot of explaining was being done, and I just wanted to get in and show what we had done (it was hard to show everyone how much we had done because of Hera not being there, but I think that we did a good job of communicating of what we had got done so far.
Something that didn't go too well was trying to work our ending. This was because we were working with the wrong moral of "Beauty being on the inside". The more obvious moral is something like how if you always reach for something that you don't have then you will never be happy-the idea of grass being greener on the other side and showing the audience that this isn't true through the Goddesses dreams of what might happen if they get the apple, and then at the end when they come to the conclusion that they don't the apple (the apple represents the respect of being the fairest/most beautiful) and that they are content being who they are. But then the end will show them all reaching for another thing (like the apple, which will represnt respect for something, a trophey for bravery or for being the wisest...) which shows how they (Hera, Aphrodite, Athene) haven't changed since the beginning of the piece where they were fighting over the apple.
Since the beginning of the process our piece has gone from the moral of beauty is on the inside to the grass is always greener on the other side. We have also changed and added conventions and the way we tell convey messages in our story.
15th September
Since we changed the original story to include a moral, and then changed our moral/message from beauty on the inside to never learning/always wanting something more, I think that our message is coming across clearer and with more ease. We are using alot more audience interaction-telling them that they beautiful and maybe that they can have the apple, because we don't want to have it, and then Eris comes in and is quite annoyed that her plan hasn't gone to plan (she was trying to set us against each other). Now that we (Hera, Aphrodite and I-Athene (finally decided to stick with Athene instead of Athena)) are friends again, Eris tries to set us against each other again, by offering us a necklace, and also at the same time prooving that we will never learn that a trinket or a trophey isn't worth a friendship, and that always reaching for that thing that always that little bit better than the last thing (selfishness, vanity) isn't a good trait in your personality and will only lead to pain (we show this when we have our spoken thoughts and we wonder what would happen if we were to win the Golden Apple. Hera looses her friends, Aphrodite thinks that she gets wrinkles and I'm not allowed to go and help in the war, weave, read or talk). Rather than going back to our original places after each thought sequence (which interupted the flow of the piece) the next thought sequence starts at the end of the previous one straight away which makes the peice flow with more ease. At times our piece is a bit awkward, but I think that this is because we need to practice more with the props and technologies (Zeus' voice over+lights) which just means doing more practices. Practice makes perfect! The first half of the piece, I think, is really good. We use a couple of freeze frames and small monologues which are quite effective in setting up the scene and the status of the Goddesses (Eris has the most monologues, and she tells the audience that there is a party going on where we are in a tableaux on the steps).
Our characters have become more distinct as we have practiced over the last few weeks. Hera has become more posh and Queenly, Aphrodite is more seductive but "blonde" and Athene, my character is the least dainty of the godesses and is more tomboy/manly. I show this by keeping my voice lower and walking with a bit of a swagger, compared to the other two who are very upright and uptight. Our characters are believable because our physical traits and our voices/what we say reflect/help symbolise who we are/what we represent i.e. Athene, the Goddess of War, war is more of a mens job, it's messy and dirty. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty unlike the other two, and my lower voice, my swagger, and how I interact with Paris (slapping him on the shoulders) all show this.
In today's society, with media and products for everything (including wrinkles-Aphrodites biggest hate), and there always being something new coming onto the market, I think that people will relate to our piece. Our message can really be taken two ways-the way I just mentioned about there always be something better and new than the thing before or that friends sometimes forget priorties, and when they learn (through one path or another) that they have got their priorties wrong, they are still attracted to the next big thing, and forget what they just learned (this is probably more relatable to high school students where the maturity level isn't quite high enough to understand that friendship is the most important thing). The golden apple (and the necklace) is sympolic of beauty, and also symbolic of that thing that people always reach/aim for. The tension that is created between the four Godesses because of the vanity over power and beauty tears the 'friendship' apart that had been formed between Hera, Aphrodite and Athene. This vanity is very aparent in today's society, and we don't always see it as a bad thing, but when mixed with power, or when the vanity gets to a point that the person is constantly thinking about theirself, then this is when it becomes bad and you may loose friends, become anxious in every aspect of your life, and or loose your livelihood (these are all extremes). We don't resolve our story, the Goddesses never learn their mistakes, finishing with Eris holding a necklace just up out of their reach (the godesses in a freeze frame all reaching for the necklace) "Ha! You never learn do you?". We decided to leave the audience like this because it creates thoughts that maybe if they hadn't for once been so selfcentered, then they might be friends, they don't really NEED the necklace.
The most significant moments in our scene are:
1. When we realise that none of us want the apple-because this shows (for one split second) that we do actually like each other and we aren't completely self centered
2. The last moment when Eris says "You'll never learn will you?"-because it leaves the audience thinking about our moral/message
16th September
Changes we are going to make to our performance to improve it after reflecting on feedback as a group are:
1. Add more interaction/dialogue between the goddesses and less narration/spoken thoughts to show how they feel about things rather than telling the audience about how they feel (especially when Paris comes in, before we give him the apple)
2. Change our transitions between the thoughts and the real world, so that it is clear on who we are and when (if we are a figment of someones imagination or-when the transition happens between thoughts-when we are our real selves)
3. Continue to make our voices and characters more distinct also slow down when speaking so that people can hear what we are saying
4. Find other ways to create tension in the scene other than by shouting at each other
5. Stand further apart from each other and not stand so close when doing the pressure cirlce around Paris, as aparently this detracts from our Godliness, you can't hear what we are saying because we are so close to one another and it is hard to see Paris' reactions. Also to stand further aparent from one another when talking to each other as this means we talk louder and creates a sense of larger than life. This will also mean that our space is more effectively used throughout the piece, not just in the beginning and the end (in the beginning we come down from the stage, Eris and I walk onto the blocks where we look survey what is happening, and Aphrodite+Hera walk down the sides of the blocks interacting with the audience, before introducing themselves, we (H,A,A) then go up onto the steps and freeze as Eris introduces herself. This is more effective than our original beginning because the flow between the introductions and the 'party scene' is seamless, and it also shows more of our characters because we interact with each other (and I interact with Eris, so the audience gets the idea that I don't/we don't like her.
"Basic Map of our stage"
17th September
Tension!
A way that we are creating tension without yelling at one another is by using music (from the soundtrack of 'Passion of The Christ'). We are opening our piece with this music while we walk down onto/next to the blocks to make the mood mysterious and also because we aren't talking to one another, our body language coupled with the music increases the tension between Eris and I.
Another way that we are creating tension without yelling one another is by using the Goddesses 'powers'. We've decided that Hera has the power to stop people from being able to make sound/talking (their lips move but no sound comes out). I have a power to freeze people and we aren't sure what Aphrodite can do yet, but something along those lines. The frustration that the use of these powers on one another causes further increases the tension and also makes us larger than life (not mortal/realistic which would not fit with our characters as we are meant to be powerfull Goddesses).
Transitions!
We have got a different transition for each of the Goddesses thoughts, so that it shows the differences between each of the Goddesses imaginations. In Hera's imagination we twirl forward to our positions and then I become a very butch character and Aphrodite becomes very feminine. When I get sent off to Africa I twirl back again to the back of the stage as this shows that I am leaving her imagination. When we (Aphrodite and I) become her angel and devil at the end of the scene, we will do something not typical of our characters (maybe twirl again, not sure, Steph was away today so we couldn't run this past her) which will show that we are again 'in her head' and not our ACTUAL characters. For Aphrodite's Dream we will do some sort of graceful/beautiful ballet move with our arms to start off with and I will seem like someone who she can overpower now that she has the golden apple (not my usual strong, independent self). At the end of her scene I do a sort of marching move which sort of symbolises War and then say my line "I wonder what would happen if I got the golden apple..." and then the other two do the same marching move and run around the audience asking them if they have heard about the war. At the end of my scene we each do our 'move' (Hera-twirl, Aphrodite-Ballet arm thing and Athene-Marching thing) and go back to REAL time where I am the first to say that I don't want the apple because of the poor innocent people and I will lose my voice (Hera uses her power on me, which builds tension in that scene because I want to go and help the people in the war as I am the Goddess of War, but Hera and Aphrodite decide that I will ruin my beauty if I do anything so am made to sit and do NOTHING not even talk, I get very upset), Aphrodite also admits that she doesn't want the apple, and so does Hera. Eris then enters, asking if we have decided on the fairest and this is our last scene which we finish with a freeze frame.
NOTE TO SELF AND GROUP: Remeber to stay at arm lengths or more apart, this creates a larger than life sense and allows the audience to see through the actors onstage to the other side and actors on the otherside. Also forces us to talk louder and slower (CLEARER!).
21st September (2 DAYS TO GO!!)
Final script with cues
Heaven lighting (gold and reds), spotlight on the middle of the blocks
Goddesses walk down from the stage to the blocks to OPENING MUSIC, Hera starts talking…
Hera-I am Hera, the Olympian Queen of all and marriage. I am also the goddess of starry heavens and sky. I am ambitious, I’m powerful, and I’m beautiful. I’m Hera.
Hera moves to step and freezes.
Aphrodite-Beauty, pleasure, love and procreation, that’s my domain; I’m Aphrodite. I’m the most beautiful goddess around and no one can question that.
Aphrodite moves to steps and freezes.
Athene- (Slowly, clearly, low voice) War, wisdom, weaving, I am Athene, the virgin goddess of wise counsel and heroic endeavour. (Start walking upstage, stop half way and look back over shoulder at the audience) Oh, did I mention my immense beauty? (Glare at Eris in passing)
Athene moves to steps and freezes.
Eris- I am Eris. I am the goddess of strife, and of discord. The other goddesses don’t like me much. They say it’s because I’m troublesome and argumentative, but I think they just don’t like me because I’m not as pretty as they are. Ha!
STEPS LIGHT UP BLOCKS LIGHTS GO DOWN
Hera-I love her dress.
Athene- (Low+husky deflect at end of sentence instead of inflect) I think it’s hideous
Aphrodite-I think it’d look much better on me.
Hera-Oh sure it would!
BLOCKS LIGHT UP/SPOTLIGHT ON ERIS
Eris- There’s a wedding going on up there- Thetis and Perseus. Goddess and mortal- that's unusual. I wasn't invited- that's not. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to crash the party, then. See, I've even got a present for the bride! Here goes, wish me luck!
Spotlight goes down, lights come up fully on the bridge, ‘normal heaven lighting’
Eris moves to the bridge/steps. Athene moves forward crossing her arms, blocking Eris’ way-stare Eris down
Aphrodite: What is SHE doing here? (to Hera and Athena)
Hera: Darling, you weren’t invited. (to Eris)
Eris: And why not, may I ask? I have a gift and everything!
Aphrodite: We don’t want any tantrums here
Eris: What do ya mean tantrums!? I don’t throw tantrums!!!
Athene: Exhibit A! (To audience+Hera+Aphrodite+imaginary party guests)
Hera: Please Leave
Eris: What? No!
Athene: (Grabs Eris’ arms and drags her forward) You, are the Goddess of Discord, and (voice gets louder and more thunderous on each word) We don’t want you here! (Pushes Eris)
Eris: YOU CAN’T DO THIS!! Spotlight on blocks, lights on bridge go partway down (creating an isolation feeling for Eris) (Hera, Athene and Aphrodite freeze).I can't believe them! They can be so petty sometimes. Oh look, it's Athene the bully. Always using force to get her way, as you've seen. And the great queen Hera, with the greatest ego on Mount Olympus. To her, being the wife of mighty Zeus is the key to making everyone do what she says. Finally, pretty Aphrodite. Her head is nice enough on the outside, but I'm afraid that inside is a bit... empty. You know, I'm getting a plan. They all think they're so strong, powerful and beautiful- I'll show them! And I shall use this. (pulls apple from box and holds up for crowd to see) Alright, you three! (Spotlight down, Bridge lights up) (unfreeze) One golden apple, for the one fairest goddess. Let’s see who comes out on top.
Goddesses look at each other, Hera picks up apple
Hera: (Talking to the audience as well as Aphrodite and Athene) Look at my apple! It is my apple; I am the most beautiful and after all married to the most powerful, most handsome god, Zeus (Aphrodite grabs apple out of Hera hand)
Aphrodite: (Talking to the audience as well as Hera and Athene) I deserve the apple! I AM after all the goddess of beauty. (to the audience) don’t you think I should get the apple? (Athene steals apple from Aphrodite)
Athene: Give the apple here! Those two have nothing on my beauty and wisdom, nothing. It’s mine, surely! (to the audience untill Hera steals the apple from her hand)
(Cat fight, Athene ends up holding the apple up out of Hera’s and Aphrodite’s reach)
[CUE FOR ZEUS-WHEN ALL THE GODDESSES HAVE THEIR HANDS ON THE APPLE FIGHTING OVER IT]
FLASH BANG (Block spotlight goes up)
Zeus: Stop this insolence! Why are you three fighting?!
Hera: Well, honey, Eris gave us this golden apple, (hold apple up so audience can see) and it’s for the fairest. Don’t you think I should get the apple? I am the prettiest am I not?
Aphrodite: OH! Zeus, I am the goddess of Beauty, therefore the fairest, should I not be awarded the apple?
Athene: (Sarcastic) Oh, next you two will be saying that your beauty isn’t only skin deep! You’ll both being saying that you have an (Quotation marks) “adorable pancreas” (Goddesses begin bickering)
Zeus: ENOUGH! (Goddesses fall to silence) I’m not going to make this decision, it’s not my place.
Hera: Husband, what are you talking about? Make a decision now! The decision is obvious of course! (Warning tone)
Athene: Zeus!!! (Frustrated)
Aphrodite: Choose Zeus! (All talking at once)
Zeus: No Hera, that’s exactly why I am not going to choose between the three of you, I’m going to send you to someone else who will decide.
FLASH BANG (Bright flash of light-lightning strike feel lights change to earth lighting, more natural colours BIRD SOUNDS START)
Goddesses fall to earth, LIGHTS FLICKER IN A LIGHTNING STRIKE WAY
(Goddesses start complaining about earth)
Zeus: Stop complaining, I’ve sent you to earth to find a mortal man they call Paris, he will choose between you.
FLASH BANG (Zeus’ spot light goes down)
Hera: ZEUS!
Aphrodite: This is your entire fault Hera, now we are stuck in this…unsanitary place, if this doesn’t age me, I don’t know what else will
Athene: Oh earth’s not that bad, but Hera, this IS all your fault!
Hera: How is this all my fault? Argh (Claps) Paris!
Athene: Really under your thumb! (Gestures with thumb)
Paris: Did someone call me? (Walk to back of stage behind Paris)
Aphrodite: Ah…do you think it talks?
Hera: Here, come and have a seat. Do you understand us?
Paris: Yes, I do
Athene: Of course Paris understands you, Hera, give Paris the apple. (Hand Hera the apple)
(Hera gives Paris the apple)
Paris: What is this for? An apple?
Hera: Yes, a golden apple. That *ahem* Eris gave it to us, and it is meant for the fairest. That is me is it not?
Aphrodite: Yeah right, you’re just jealous because Zeus was afraid to pick me over you.
Athene: Paris, it is obvious that I am the fairest!
Aphrodite: What, the man? (Laughs with Hera, Athene scowls)
Hera: (uses her ‘power’ to draw Paris to her) Paris, I’ll give you…Europe and Asia for that apple (Takes Paris to stage left)
Paris: Oh I like the sound of that, King Paris! I could name a city after myself- (Athene forcefully guides Paris away from Hera to stage right)
Athene: (uses her ‘power’ to pull Paris over to her) If you give ME that apple, I’ll give you such skill in battle that you will never be able to lose.
Paris: I could use that, I could conquer- (Aphrodite forcefully guides Paris away from Athene to centre downstage)
Aphrodite: (uses her ‘power’ to pull Paris over to her. Paris starts drooling over her beauty) You know, Paris, if I get that apple I’ll give you Helen of Sparta. She’s quite beautiful and shall we say, voluptuous?
Paris: Yeah? Really? I like the sound of that!
Here: (Pulling Paris towards her with her power) No, I deserve the apple, pick me, I am obviously the most beautiful!
Athene: (Pulling Paris towards herwith her power) Paris, pick me! Skill in battle!!
Aphrodite: (Stepping between Athene and Paris) I’ve told you already!!! I AM THE GODDESS OF BEAUTY! I deserve that golden apple!
(Bickering between the goddesses about how the deserve the apple more than the others, they tell this to the audience as well, then go into a pressure circle around Paris)
Paris: STOP! I can’t make this decision! You're all beautiful! You figure it out!
(Goddesses all glare at each other, Hera picks up the apple off the ground)
Hera- I wonder what I will do If I get the apple? I’d have the world in my hand. Athene (Spins forward then stands in a ‘cave man’ stance), the cave man would be my slave, and floozy Aphrodite (Aphrodite spins forward) would also be my slave. Hmmm let’s see how this turns out. (Walks back to seat)
Hera- Aphrodite! Aphrodite, bring me my world!!!!
(Aphrodite brings in globe and hands globe to Hera)
Hera- It's time for my daily compliments.
Aphrodite-You are sooo pretty,I love your hair, how do you get it so shiny? (Athene stays silent, Hera looks at globe then at Athene)
Hera- Where would you like to go Athene?
Athene- Grunt
Hera-Oops, too late! Hahaha see you in Africa! Bye!
Athene-Grunt (Athene spins to back of stage)
Aphrodite- Haha this is sooo much better without Athene and her manliness.
(laughs, Hera looks at her)
Hera- Where would you like to go Aphrodite?
Aphrodite- Noooo! Please don't Hera
Hera- Where would you like to go Aphrodite?
Aphrodite-Oh no, please don’t send me away! I’ll do anything! But if you do have to send me away, then somewhere with men maybe?
Hera-Hmmmm China. They have nice men there (laughs)
(Aphrodite spins off)
Hera- Ahhhhhhh perfect......Dioynoses? Haephatus? Anyone?
(Aphrodite and Athena ‘float’ up)
Aphrodite and Athene- You have no friends, no-one likes you, and you’ve sent them all off to Africa, and Asia and Australia!
Hera places her globe at the front of the stage and goes back to her place
Hera-Well that didn’t work out so well (Hera and Athene form statue poses)
Aphrodite-Well, if I were to get the golden apple, Hera would do everything that I said. Hera, go get my mirror (Hera fetches her mirror) See? I told you so! (Giggle) And that freak Athene! Well, she would tell me how beautiful I was aaaall day long! (Turns to Athene) Lower, lower, lower (Athene awkwardly and clumsily gets down till she’s sitting on her knees) Ahhh that’s better. Now Hera, tell me how beautiful I am.
Hera- Your hair is very black and your face is very...white.
Aphrodite- Oh, I think that you can do better than that! (POWER! Flicks hair)
Hera and Athene start giving compliments. Athene lists every body part and says that it is perfect, Hera gives real compliments. Power ends.
Hera- Your face is very ah round...
Aphrodite- Oh well, it never last long enough any way (Looks into mirror) Oh my gosh! Is that a wrinkle?! Can you see a wrinkle on my forehead? How can I be the fairest with that crater on my head?! (Puts mirror down, Athene comes out of dream)
After Aphrodite places Mirror at the front of the stage she returns to her starting position near to Hera.
Athene-I wonder how people would treat me if I were to be the fairest. (Looks off into the distance and then flash forward to Athene’s idea about the world if she won the apple)
Aphrodite-There’s a war! There’s a war! Have you heard?
Hera-Someone do something to help those innocent people! Oh, Athene, Goddess of war, you go and help.
Athene-Oh yes, I’ll definitely go and help, I am after all the Goddess of war and wisdom…
Aphrodite-Oh no! It's so sharp and pointy!
Athene-What? But I have to go and help, it is my duty!
Hera-Here, have a seat here, we’ll get you some…weaving to do!
Hera-Oh…Wait…She can’t…
Athene-What? I’m the goddess of weaving?!
Aphrodite-But you might prick yourself! Look, sit here and read a book.
Hera-She might ruin her eyesight, those beautiful eyes…
Aphrodite-You’re right, Athene, just sit there and…look beautiful, look, you’re already doing a wonderful job!
Athene-Oh…
Aphrodite-And don’t talk, you might ruin your beautiful voice. I SAID, no talking (Uses power, Athene is muted, unable to talk)
(Aphrodite and Hera walk forwards talking about this and that while Athene is left in the chair miserable, realizing that beauty isn’t all that it is cracked up to be)
Back to the Goddesses fighting over the apple
Athene- Hera, Aprodite, I don’t want the golden apple! Those poor people!
Aphrodite- No way, I don’t want it either. Hera, you take it.
Hera- I don’t want it. Why don’t we get rid of it or something?
(Eris enters)
Eris- So, how’s it going? Looks like you haven’t decided who’s the fairest one of all yet.
Aphrodite- You can have the apple back, Eris. We don’t want it.
Eris- What do you mean you don't want it?? This WASN'T supposed to happen!!! You're supposed to tear eachother's hair out by the roots!
Hera- We tried that, and it didn't work.
Athene- I won’t be able to talk! And those poor people!
Eris- What people?
Aphrodite- Yeah, and you can keep the wrinkles as well!
Eris- Wrinkles????
Hera- You don’t need friends anyway, right Eris?
Eris- I do have friends! Sort of… Anyway, this isn’t a magic apple or anything. It’s just gold, a trinket I found for Thetis.
Hera- Well, we still don't want any of it.
Athene- We've learned that the prestige of that apple- or anything else- isn't worth our friendship.
Aphrodite- Yeah... I mean, we are all beautiful. Sort of.
Eris- So... None of you want the apple?
Hera, Athene, Aphrodite- NO!!!
Eris- Alright, alright. I heard you. Too noble and whatnot. Then I guess you don't want this, either? (pulls large, gaudy necklace from inside cloak)
Hera- I'll take it!
Aphrodite-No way, it totally suits me better!
Athene- You two are dreaming! Eris, give it to me!
Hera, Athene and Aphrodite chase Eris up the stairs, freeze reaching for the necklace
Eris- Haha! You never really learn, do you?
Blackout
We have had to not use our thunder bolt/lightning strike sounds because we couldn't find any that sounded quite right, and some that would have been ok, were too hard to get the cues right. So we decided that with the lights flashing and Zeus' voice shouting at us, that THAT would give the effect that we wanted (or close enough).
22nd of September (1 DAY TO GO!)
"Show the three goddesses together as a unit, but they can’t move into each other’s personal space too much or this will dull down the godliness status that they have (they are all powerful, if they move into each other’s space this will make them seem very human like, will have to show the audience this by using strong gestures and long arms when snatching the apple from each other’s grasp at the beginning-haven’t gotten further onto how we will portray the story yet)."
We are portraying or godly nature throughout the rest of the story through our blocking (i.e. standing far apart, not in naturalistic positions on stage) this shows that we are not realistic characters, our postures, how we stand and address each other and the audience and how we talk).
PARIS!
Is no longer the centre of this story. The original is based around how if Paris chose between the three goddesses he would make eternal enemies of the other two. But we have changed the ending because Aphrodite "showing her true form" was not appropriate for onstage, and it was hard to find a true moral of the story to get across to the audience. So instead Paris has become a minor character. We made him a typical male kiwi farmer who can't make a decision. This is more appropriate as Paris not making a decision then leaving allows for a nicer flow to the dream sequences and allows for us to get our moral across with more ease.
Research
All of the research that I did, was mostly to give me a background idea of our myth, and also to give us some motives for certain things (i.e. thinking about the apple like Eve's Apple, it doesn't belong to any one of us, yet the tempting nature of the apple, or just the competition with others, motivates us into competition). Although I had a little background knowledge of our myth, the research that I did helped in the portrayal of my character as I learned more about the Greek Gods, where they hung out (Mt Olympus), their relationships and deities (which helped me when thinking about my relationships with the other characters).
CONTEMPORARY!
We have chosen a more contemporary interpretation because-
a) the audience will relate more easily
b) When we read the myth, we saw the Gods as strong, catty, powerful individuals, and thought about childhood tv programmes like Hercules. We related to the Gods in this way, and we see them portrayed this way.
c) Grecian theatre is very rigid and ritualistic. The myth is about beauty, vanity and jealousy, and our moral is very modern. Grecian theatre would make it very difficult to express our moral and these qualities.
Conventions!
Freeze frame, Angel+devil/voices in the head (onstage), Dream sequence/Imaginary flashforward, Pressure circle, Recorded soundscape, Monologues, Spoken thoughts, Chorus of voices ("If only there was someone here to hlep us"), Chorus of Movement
We are using the performance conventions of monologues, spoken thoughts and angel+devil to deliver more personal information to the audience about:
a) the individual characters
b) the situation AND
c) we are also using the conventions to to show the personal opinions of the characters. This is effective because these conventions get 'inside' the characters head/thoughts or force the character to share information. This allows the audience to get a clearer view of the situation and character.
The performance conventions of freeze frames, pressure circles and angel and devil increase tension in the scene without resorting to having to shout at one another (although pressure cirlce coupled with thunderous voices while the person in the person in the middle is almost squeaking in fright gives the effect of Gods putting pressure on a mortal which enhances our role as Gods). Freeze frames are effective because they show a moment of high tension, and when coupled with a a monologue/spoken thought (we have a scene where Eris has just been thrown out of the party, the other Goddesses are very annoyed at her-they are in a freeze frame [TRIANGLE THREE POINTS TO REPRESENT THE DEITY] and Eris is in tantrum mode) the effect in our piece is a moment of high tension+one persons anger. The frozen moment and Eris' rage contrast against each other. As Eris plots, it shows that she is a world apart for us, very different. The moment of high tension that we are in, is what has fueled her rage, so this reminder to the audience AND to her adds to her plotting/revenge.
Audience interaction and imagined flashforwards enhance our roles. I personally treat the audience like they are other guests at the party/gods/goddesses ("Exhibit A"). The way that these conventions that we use enhance our roles is by enhancing our Godly nature (normally actors wouldn't address the audience the way we have-Hera offers them her hand to kiss, being the Queen). The dream sequences show the difference in reality from the figmant of each other's imagination.
Athene
Reality-strong, independant, sharp & clear
Hera's imagination- caveman, unclear, grunts
Aphrodite's imagination- 'freak' monotone
Athene's imagination- told what to do by others, can't go and help in the war, not as independant or strong.
Reality and Imagination=opposites BUT how Hera and Aphrodite see me in reality taken slightly out of proportion for clarity
We are taking our woes to absolute extreme because then the goddesses definately won't want the apple. Series of three dreams once again represents the deity. The Goddesses have to realise that the apple isn't worth what it is, and up untill the dreams, they were willing to give up their friendships and willing to bribe (sometimes give up things i.e. Europe+Asia, Skill in Battle-which given to a mortal could be dangerous). So the dreams have to be extreme to shock them back into 'reality'.
ACTION!
We were improvising our 'cat fights' alot throughout the piece each time we performed/rehearsed (we knew what we had to say but it would never be said in the right order). Since we have gotten more practice done our cat fights (and dialogue) have become easier to do-we know what we are going to do next, what direction to face so that the audience isn't staring at our backs the whole time, and this means that the flow between each section is easier and we feel more at ease on stage.
IMAGINED FLASHFORWARD!
After more feedback, it seems that the blocking of and the transitions between each of our dreams aren't quite clear enough to convey the message that this is a different space, not reality anymore. So today we played around with the idea of using the black box-infront of the gauze on the actual stage-as Hera's throne in her dreams, and she walks up the bridge during her opening and Aphrodite and I both end up on a pillar each. When I get sent to africa, I go and stand where I did on the back of the blocks with my back to the audience to show that I am no longer in the scene, and then when that Angel thing happens, it is maybe just a voice in Hera's head, not our actual person (and Hera can come back down the bridge while that happens). We havent worked through the other two scenes yet, but they would be the same sort of thing with even larger spaces between each of the characters, and using a different space of the stage compared to 'reality'.
23rd of September (TODAY'S THE DAY!)
Each of our dresses + makeup represent our characters in one way or another.
My dress is a grey/silver b ase with straight/clean lines. This is to symbolise/pay tribute to parts of War (the blade of a sword is silver).
The sash is also to symbolise war and the colour (blue) is to make my dress look 'prettier' as our myth is all about beauty, vanity, power etc.
The broach (originally a pendant for a necklace) on the shoulder gives the dress a war quality.
With our makeup we wanted something that would set us apart from the "mortals" in other myths and also the audience, so that the audience would feel like we were completely different from them. We decided to use facepaint to do this. Hera and Aphrodite had swirly patterns on their faces (Hera had a crown type pattern). My face paint is more war paint, a band across my eyes (in blue-my eyes are blue so this colour also made my eyes more blue which helped make the overall effect quite striking) with a few swirls (in silver). The striking nature of the makeup reflects the strikingness of my character Athene.